Rodri's rocket sends Manchester City top after thriller at Sheffield United

For a little under four minutes in Yorkshire on Sunday afternoon, Manchester City's rivals were offered a glimmer of hope.

With the treble winners out of sorts, perhaps rattled by a pugnacious and occasionally brutal Sheffield United side, they looked set to drop their first points of the new season.

Erling Haaland, who had uncharacteristically missed a first-half penalty, opened the scoring on the hour, but Kyle Walker's late defensive meltdown ended with Jayden Bogle plundering an 85th-minute equaliser, and it seemed, just for the briefest of moments, that City's 100 per cent start was about to come to an end.

In fact, that feeling lasted for about three and a half minutes as the visitors were stung into an immediate riposte.

Walker, playing against his boyhood club and eager to make amends, won the ball back on the right flank and fed a low cross into the box. Substitute Phil Foden's touch was poor but lucky and the ball sat up perfectly for Rodri – City's midfield anchor with a proclivity for pivotal goals – and the Spaniard sent a shot arrowing into the top corner of the Blades' net.

The 27-year-old, who now has two goals in the club's opening three league matches, admitted City weren't at their best but felt their determination and patience were the keys to victory.

"We worked a lot today," he said. "It's one of the games where you have to be patient until the end because they’re very narrow.

"Great credit to them. They defended so good today. In the end, we had the first chance with the penalty and unfortunately we missed.

"But we kept trying and trying till the end. Erling [Haaland] needed one, two, three chances but he is a goalscorer and he scored for us.

"The mistake for the goal cannot happen again. The