wicked.football

Manchester City midfielder Rodri has been charged by the Football Association for recent comments questioning the integrity of Premier League referees. 

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The Spain international has been given one week to respond to the charge and it’s possible his punishment could mean a temporary ban from playing.

Rodri vented his frustration after Man City’s recent 2-2 draw away to Tottenham, suggesting that match officials were biased against his club because they’ve won so much.

What Rodri said that has landed him in trouble

“I know we won too much and the people don’t want us to win, but the referee has to be neutral,” Rodri said after his side’s draw with Spurs, as quoted by BBC Sport.

“It’s not fair because we work so hard. When everything is finished, you are frustrated.”

Rodri celebrates a goal for Manchester City (Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images)

This is clearly a step too far from the Spain international, who has plenty of experience at the highest level and who should surely have known better than to make such a serious accusation.

Manchester City could be without Rodri in close title race with Arsenal

It’s not yet clear if Rodri definitely will be banned for a few games, and it’s perhaps hard to imagine it would be for that long.

Still, he’s important enough to Pep Guardiola’s side and this is a very close title race against rivals Arsenal, so if he misses an important game at the right moment it could make all the difference.

Of course, City are blessed with a lot of squad depth, so they should be able to cope without Rodri is only for the short term, though we’ve also seen just how much the team struggled without him for lengthy periods when he missed a lot of last season.

The post Possible boost for Arsenal as Manchester City star charged and facing potential ban appeared first on CaughtOffside.