MANCHESTER, OCT 8 (REUTERS): The Premier League resumes this weekend with one of its flagship fixtures, but Manchester City’s trip to Liverpool will unfold amid a hostile atmosphere and beneath an unprecedented cloud following the club’s guilty verdict in a landmark financial case.
City head to Anfield on Sunday for their first league game since an independent commission found the club guilty of more than 100 serious breaches of the league’s financial rules over nine years, as well as charges relating to their failure to co-operate with the investigation.
“If they want an understanding of how angry the game is going to be, then Anfield will tell them like you would never believe,” former Manchester United captain and England defender Gary Neville declared recently on The Overlap podcast.
“I suspect there may be banners, there will certainly be chanting. There will be a reception like you have never seen for them at Anfield… it will be a brutal day.”
City have appealed the decision and continue to maintain their innocence, saying the commission’s opinion contains “clear material errors” and that they possess evidence supporting their position.
For now, however, the legal battle and the football season occupy the same uneasy space.
City have carried on imperiously on the pitch, winning all five of their league matches to start the campaign, and will arrive at Anfield looking to preserve that perfect record.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have endured a less convincing opening, with two wins and three draws from their opening five league games.
That would normally provide more than enough intrigue for a fixture between two clubs that have shaped much of the top flight’s recent history, but events away from the pitch have transformed Sunday’s game into something far bigger.
