“Rodri of Manchester City will sit out for three matches following his ejection for grabbing Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White by the neck.

Rodri, often regarded as the Premier League’s top midfielder in the past 18 months, received a red card a mere 27 seconds into the second half during Saturday’s match, which took place near the corner flag. As a result, he will be absent for upcoming matches against Newcastle United, Wolves, and Arsenal, due to an automatic three-match suspension for violent conduct.

Referee Anthony Taylor initially brandished the red card after witnessing Rodri place his hands on Gibbs-White’s neck, following a heated exchange between the two players that had them confronting each other. Rodri had initially pushed Forest’s No. 10 away.

In their subsequent face-off, Rodri briefly grabbed Gibbs-White before the England Under-21 international dramatically fell to the ground. VAR reviewed the incident but upheld the on-field decision.

Visibly upset, Rodri was seen arguing with Gibbs-White as he exited the field, clearly dissatisfied with his opponent’s reaction. Gibbs-White was seen holding his throat during this exchange.

The Etihad Stadium crowd applauded Rodri as he left the field, but Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola wore a discontented expression, indicating his displeasure.

Commenting on the incident on BBC Radio 5 Live, Michael Brown remarked, “Rodri, we’ve never really seen that reaction from him before, getting into those situations and ultimately once you raise your hands you give the referee and his officials something to think about… although the reaction was incredible from Gibbs-White.”

“It was a delayed reaction wasn’t it? That’s the point, he could have easily stayed up and then he thought ‘oh I’ve got to go down’. That’s the point.”

Fara Williams, speaking on Final Score, argued that the referee had little choice, regardless of Gibbs-White’s response. “You can see Rodri has put his hands on the throat of Gibbs-White,” she stated. “The Forest man does make the most of it, but hands on the throat is violent conduct.”

Post-game, Phil Foden, who scored City’s first goal in the 2-0 victory, said,

“I think the first half was brilliant apart from the last 10, I think they found us out a little. The second half was not what we expected because Rodri got a red card quite early.”

“It wasn’t ideal but we showed a different side to us today to dig in and yeah I’m proud of the team.”

Manchester City performance and stats

Manchester City is currently 1st in the Premier League with 18 points.

It has a positive goal difference after scoring 16 goals and conceding 3.​

Manchester City will play the next match in Premier League against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday 30th of September in Wolverhampton.​

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