Anthony Gordon’s equaliser is the sort of goal City wouldn’t concede with their talisman, and that spells trouble

There are times when a football pitch can look very small and you start to wonder whether perhaps, in these days of hyper-fit, hyper-organised athletes, the playing area needs to be stretched, or a player or two per side removed. And there are other times when the pitch looks enormous, a giant patchwork of Rodri-shaped holes.

There is a danger when the absence of Rodri is so pressing, when everybody is so aware of Rodri not being there, that it feels like every pass in the final third would have been cut out by Rodri.