Anfield cauldron awaits Man City players on Premier League return after verdict in financial scandal
Erling Haaland and Manchester City’s other star players have watched from a distance as the club has dealt with the fallout from being found guilty of large-scale financial wrongdoing in the biggest scandal in Premier League history
Erling Haaland and Manchester City's other star players have watched from a distance as the club dealt with the fallout from being found guilty of large-scale financial wrongdoing in the biggest scandal in Premier League history.
Now they have to face the music.
City's first game back after an international window dominated by the explosive verdict in its long-running case with the Premier League comes on Sunday.
And it just had to be at Anfield.
A trip to Liverpool has long been considered the toughest, most fearsome away game of the season by City. It just got even tougher, with Haaland, Rayan Cherki and the rest likely entering a cauldron of hate and anger this weekend.
Liverpool might consider itself the team which suffered most from the slew of financial misdemeanors carried out by City, according to the findings of an independent investigatory panel, between 2009-18 — the period when City's Abu Dhabi ownership was assembling a squad that would later dominate English soccer. Those findings are the subject of an appeal by City, which continues to assert its innocence.
Under former coach Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool won the Premier League in 2020 but the team also finished second to Pep Guardiola's City by one point in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons following memorable title races that raised the bar in terms of points earned and the standard of football played.
What helped City to reach that level was nearly a decade of rule-breaking, the independent panel has found.
So, expect Liverpool fans to be seething inside and outside of Anfield. They'll believe they are owed some titles.
Aside from Phil Foden, who is suspended for the match, no current member of City's squad even played for the club from 2009-18. Enzo Maresca took over as City manager only in June.
Still, they will be the ones bearing the brunt of the widespread discontent from fan bases up and down the country in the coming months.
What will be intriguing is who from City's ownership or board attends the Liverpool game. How much will the matter weigh on the players under the most intense pressure? And what will be the reaction of City's match-going supporters, with the future of their club so uncertain — the potential sanctions include a huge points deduction, even expulsion from the Premier League — and the violations of its ownership clear for all to see in the commission's verdict?
City leads the league on a maximum 15 points from five games — all of which were played when the club was being accused of those financial breaches.
Now the guilty verdict has arrived, it's time to see the impact on the team — and the reaction of its rivals.
The first game back after an extended three-week break for internationals is Arsenal, the defending champion, at home to Leeds on Saturday lunchtime.
Manchester United hosts Tottenham — in last place on two points — in one of five other games on Saturday.
The international window was marked by a raft of injuries to high-profile Premier League players. Now to see how serious they are.
Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo returned to Liverpool for assessment of injuries picked up playing for Sweden and the Netherlands, respectively, and are currently doubts for the Liverpool-City game. So might be Haaland, who asked to be substituted midway through the second half of Norway's final Nations League game, but that might have been because of fatigue.
Kai Havertz, who has been the starting striker for Arsenal this season, was injured in the first of four games played by Germany — though that was two weeks ago now.
Certain to be missing is Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott, who is out for up to eight weeks with a thigh injury sustained on England duty. Scott is a key player in a Bournemouth team without a win so far and heading into its first ever European campaign next week.
Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey also is facing a spell on the sidelines after sustaining a hamstring injury playing for the Netherlands.
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