Rodri’s late goal salvaged a 1-1 Premier League tie against Chelsea as Manchester City escaped their first home loss in fifteen months on Saturday.

With nine straight league victories, Pep Guardiola’s squad held third place in the standings with 53 points, four points behind champions Liverpool and two behind Arsenal, although they still had a game in hand.

Nicolas Jackson’s clever flip in the 42nd minute started a counterattack, making City’s decision to park in Chelsea’s half expensive.

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In order to score against his old team, he perfectly squared the ball to Raheem Sterling behind the defence, who turned Kyle Walker of City and curled the ball past goalie Ederson.

The City supporters were left shaking their heads in frustration after multiple close calls until Rodri equalised in the 83rd minute when Walker’s shot was blocked and bounced into the net off Trevoh Chalobah.

If City had won, they would have had a chance to take the lead in the standings when they hosted Brentford on Tuesday; but, because of their draw with Chelsea, they can only move up to second place.

With 31 shots to Chelsea’s nine, City put their defence to the test, but only five of those were on goal.

Erling Haaland, the league’s top scorer with 16 goals, was irritated by a number of near-misses, including a late, close-range header that went over the bar that was not recognised and left the Norwegian staring blankly.

Chelsea had opportunities, such as when Jackson and Ederson went one on one, and early in the second half, Sterling had a point-blank shot that the City keeper stopped.

Since Brentford’s loss at the Etihad in November 2022, City has not suffered a setback there.