Manchester City have issues with injury and form, and need their big players to step up and turn the ship around

At Bodø/Glimt, in a first Champions League outing since 1 October, the 29-year-old appeared what he is: a player still recovering after 18 months out with a serious knee injury and several related setbacks. This was only a third start since his latest return began with the second 45 minutes of the goalless draw at Sunderland on New Year’s Day. Last week Rodri declared he was “ready to go” and said: “I’m really happy to be on the pitch every single day.” Yet in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Manchester United he was a one-paced, non-factor unable to do what he did with ease pre‑anterior cruciate ligament rupture: run midfield and so the contest. In Tuesday’s 3-1 humbling in Norway the Spaniard was the same, and two moments tell the tale of his form. First Jens Petter Hauge left him a statue before registering a memorable long-range strike for Bodø’s third goal; then came the two yellow cards in two minutes that had Rodri sent off.

To channel Bjørge Lillelien and his famous commentary on Norway’s win against England in 1981: Pep Guardiola, your Manchester City boys took a heck of a beating here on the shores of the Norwegian Sea, below the skies of the aurora borealis, and on the Aspmyra Stadion’s ­artificial pitch graced by this immortal Bodø/Glimt victory which downed a ­continental superpower.

Jonas Gahr Støre was present to witness a win that came courtesy of Kasper Høgh’s two first-half goals plus Jens Petter Hauge’s curled peach after the interval, as Norway’s prime minister escaped Donald Trump’s curious obsession with the Nobel peace prize: another measure of how this result will never be forgotten.