Rodri shows up Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez to bail Man City out

Rodri scores.

The midfielder will be etched into Manchester City history forever after his winner in the Champions League final, and perhaps it will be a sentence that becomes more and more common. Just as the Blues looked to have thrown away two points at Bramall Lane, up stepped Rodri to slap in a winner that leaves them as the only team in the Premier League to have won their opening three games.

City's matchwinner in Istanbul is keen to add more goals to his game, and the addition of Mateo Kovacic and the presence of a defender moving up into midfield may allow him the freedom to do just that. Sheffield United could hardly have been said to be a fluke, given he had scored or assisted three of City's six goals from their opening four fixtures.

That is now four in eight after a late winner that shows that even if there is a large gap for improvement in the performances the team have been good enough so far with their results. There will be extra relief that they do not need to think about having to endure a trip to Sheffield United again for at least another season.

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It was a game that everyone would have expected from this fixture, the home side starved of possession (mustering just over 16 per cent in the first half) but dogged and determined not to give away easy goals to the Premier League champions. Fellow promoted side Burnley were carved open inside four minutes yet the Blues had to work far harder here.

They had to do it without the constant orchestrating from Pep Guardiola too, absent for the next few weeks with a back injury that required surgery. In his absence, Juanma Lillo rarely left his chair never mind the technical area as