Rodri provides a test against the best for Chelsea’s middle men

Rodri was able to find space all over the pitch to keep an option to teammates – and most significantly to score the equaliser. Photograph: Darren Staples/AFP/Getty Images

Chelsea were once the trendsetters, boasting an individual who redefined a role. After Didier Drogba’s arrival in west London, there was a clamour by a plethora of Premier League teams to find someone who could play as a lone striker with equal success. The Ivorian redefined what a solo frontman could do.

Twenty years later the Manchester City midfielder Rodri is the man clubs want to clone because he is integral to the European and Premier League champions’ success. Over the past 12 months, Chelsea have spent in the region of £250m on Enzo Fernández, Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia in the hope they could find the man capable of being the platform for a new era.