LIVERPOOL — Manchester City will walk into an atmosphere of toxicity and hostility they have never experienced when they face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, days after being found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18. City, who have launched an appeal and continue to maintain their innocence, arrive top of the table under new head coach Enzo Maresca, but with the entire season cast under a shadow as the Premier League weighs punishment ranging from record points deductions to expulsion and relegation.
The fixture could hardly be more charged. If City had drawn up a list of venues to avoid immediately after the verdict of an independent commission, Liverpool would have been ringed in red at the top. The clubs have shared a fractious rivalry for more than a decade, fuelled by Liverpool supporters' belief that more titles should have been theirs, having finished second behind City in 2013/14, 2018/19 and 2021/22 — the latter two by a single point — during the defining Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp era. Maresca, who has inherited both Guardiola's legacy and the fallout, was calm before a barrage of questions, saying: "The reason I joined this club is that I completely trust, 100%, the owner, the CEO, the sporting director, all the organisation. So I don't have doubt about that," and adding: "It probably will be worse because of the situation but, again, it will be our duty to do our best and try to win the game. The reason I decide to become manager is for this type of game."
City insist the commission's ruling contained "clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe" and have spoken about "when" they win their appeal, while the commission used the word "sham" eight times to describe City's dealings, including artificially inflating revenue by more than £900m through "sham" deals. The danger, as the appeal runs alongside the season, is that every victory will carry a qualification and every table an unseen asterisk, with suggestions the campaign could be rendered meaningless. Former England striker Alan Shearer told BBC Radio 5 Live Sport: "We've never seen anything like this. This is the biggest thing to happen to the Premier League since it started in 1992, that's how big it is," adding: "They're about to find out the anger from every club, starting at Anfield."
Shearer added: "It needs sorting out now because they've spent a fortune in the summer. They've won every game and that could still be the case in two months, three months, four months. They could end up winning the league. That's why it needs sorting out now because it's such a bad look if it's allowed to fester," warning that "The level of hostility will rise wherever they go." Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola, preparing for his first experience of the fixture, said: "The worst thing probably is the uncertainty. No-one knows what's going to happen. We have to focus on Liverpool and being the best club we can be, the best team we can be. That's my challenge."
The Kop, which barely disguised its contempt for City even before the verdict, is in no mood to await legal finalities. There will be sound. There will be fury. There will be resentment as City, who have assumed their familiar position at the top of the table, discover whether a title can be "won" at all while a guilty verdict hangs over them and what has been branded the potential "sham" Premier League season unfolds.