Furious Liverpool fans taunted Manchester City with cries of “cheats” as the under-siege Premier League leaders returned to the pitch for the first time since being found guilty of 114 financial breaches.
But while City’s long-term fate remains uncertain – with the possibility of relegation and even titles being stripped – the crack squad let their football do the talking at a highly charged Anfield on Monday (AEDT).
Liverpool fans display a banner. Getty Images
City outclassed 10-man Liverpool 3-0 with Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki scoring goals after Ryan Gravenberch was sent off in the 62nd minute.
“It was not easy for the players after the last two or three weeks,” City manager Enzo Maresca said.
“We need to learn how to deal with the outside noise because of the situation and the noise will be always there.
“So we need to learn how to deal with that, but at the same time we need to try to make our noise. That is win games like we have done today because at the end of the game, I think our fans they were singing, so the noise was from us, not from Liverpool.
“That’s why I’m saying that we need to learn how to deal with noise, but at the same time we need to make our noise. Our noise is: who is singing at the end? This has to be our target at this moment.”
City are three points clear of defending champions Arsenal at the top of the table after winning all six of their games so far.
It was a statement win – especially after such a hostile reception.
“They should be stripped of everything they’ve won,” Liverpool fan Sav Agathangelo said.
“The moment has gone for me to say in the season when we finish second, we’re champions.
“I would strip them of everything, but I wouldn’t necessarily award it to runners-up or anyone else.”
City’s team bus has been targeted by Liverpool fans in the past.
Fans of Manchester City celebrate. Getty Images
On this occasion City largely avoided the home fans by taking an alternative route to the stadium.
Inside, however, there was quickly a taste of things to come as the City lineup was jeered, and the boos were even louder by kickoff, with chants of “cheat, cheat” and taunts of “going down.”
It is not yet known what the future holds for City after an independent panel found the club artificially inflated its revenue by more than $1.7 billion to help sign some of football’s biggest stars and dominate the Premier League.
But for now, they are sitting pretty at the top of the standings with a 100% winning record and looking down on its rivals.
City was accused of providing misleading information about its finances over a nine-year period from 2009-18 – a span in which it won three league titles and signed superstar players like Yaya Toure, Sergio Agüero and Kevin De Bruyne.
It has appealed, but potential sanctions could include a massive fine, points deductions or even expulsion from England’s top flight.
“Cheats never prosper, or so we are told,” The Telegraph’s Oliver Brown wrote.
“But this homespun wisdom might need to be revised after Manchester City, pariahs of the Premier League, announced their return by crushing Liverpool with an ease that bordered on contemptuous.
“Naturally, their players and fans milked the moment, celebrating as if this 3-0 victory somehow conferred legitimacy on the idea of fraudulently spending your way to glory. Inflatable bananas, an ecstatic Noel Gallagher, obscene chants at Gary Neville as he appeared at pitchside for Sky Sports: it was a celebration of truly monumental conceit.”
City have denied wrongdoing throughout the case and said the commission’s opinion contains “clear material errors.”
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he would publish details of his dealings with City, after opposition politicians criticised his response to a ruling that found the club guilty of serious breaches.
“I’ve been asked by the leader of the opposition to publish details of my meetings, which I’m happy to do, and I’m going to,” Burnham said in The Rest is Politics podcast.
“I will quite clearly put out there everything that I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester.”
Burnham, who served as the mayor from 2017-2026, said his contacts with the club were not recent.
Erling Haaland of Manchester City celebrates. Getty Images
“None of it is recent, actually, in terms of the meetings I had. I only had one significant meeting, actually, and that was in 2021,” he said.
Burnham expressed concern in September that City’s owners could sell the club after the guilty verdict, saying they had been “a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester” and “in turning the club into a global force.”
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