Arsenal's fans responded to Rodri's goading in furious fashion as they proceeded to pelt Manchester City's players with objects from the terraces after their late winner.
The Gunners put in an impressive performance and can consider themselves desperately unlucky to come away with nothing, leading the game at the interval only to fall apart in the last half hour.
Bukayo Saka's first half goal capped off a stellar showing from the youngster, whose efforts were matched by fellow Gunners sensation Gabriel Martinelli on the opposite flank, the pair a constant thorn in City's side all afternoon.
Despite their efforts, it was not to be for an Arsenal side without manager Mikel Arteta, who was forced to watch the game from the comfort of his own home after testing positive for Covid-19 earlier in the week.
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The first controversial incident of the afternoon came in the opening exchanges of the first half, Martin Odegaard seemingly tripped by City goalkeeper Ederson though referee Stuart Atwell determined not enough contact was made.
Just before the hour mark, Granit Xhaka was deemed to have fouled Bernardo Silva inside the area. Atwell originally waved play on before bringing it back to award the penalty after a VAR review.
A minute later, Gabriel was sent off after receiving two yellows in quick succession, the first for scuffing the penalty spot, the second for clattering Gabriel Jesus on the half-way line.
This inevitably made Arsenal's already difficult task twice as hard, with City asserting then their dominance in terms of possession for the remainder of the game.
Their pressure eventually told as Rodri prodded home a scrappy winner deep into the six minutes of second-half stoppage time to spark wild scenes from the City bench.
The Spanish midfielder whipped his shirt off as the emotions got the better of him, wheeling away in the direction of the Arsenal fans, who responded angrily.
As the City stars bundled on top of each other in celebration, plastic bottles were launched in their direction from the home crowd.
Despite being a target for the Arsenal fans, Rodri was complimentary of the Gunners' progress under former City assistant Arteta.
"They're an unbelievable team, they show why they are in that position. The way they go with Mikel is huge, it's massive," the midfielder explained.
"We knew it. We know also that they rested more than us they had 6 days to prepare we had three games this week with travel it's tough.
"When you don't have the physicality we have to play more easy and we struggled in the first half.
"First half we could do more with our game, but sometimes it is like this, the other team also plays, they press a lot, they do a great game, fortunately we saw our champion personality and we want to go again."
