SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11 — 8:30AM PDT, NBC — There has never been a Liverpool vs. Manchester City quite like this one. When City walk out at Anfield on Sunday morning, it will be their first match since an independent commission found them guilty of 114 of the 115 charges the Premier League brought against them — the biggest scandal in the competition’s history, with an appeal lodged and the whole sport holding its breath. Oh, and it is also first against the league’s only other unbeaten side, with three points and the entire title race on the line. Welcome to the strangest Super Sunday ever played.
The scene
Anfield, 4:30pm local time, under the Super Sunday lights. NBC Sports put it plainly in their preview this week: these two were neck and neck on and off the pitch for most of the years in question, and the home fans will remind City’s players and supporters of exactly that. If you want company, NBC’s Premier League Mornings Live fan festival takes over Denver this weekend — Rebecca Lowe, Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe and Tim Howard on site, with Sunday’s game headlining the coverage. Enzo Maresca faces the media at the City Football Academy on Friday morning, and you can bet every question will be about everything except the football. That is the new normal now.
The football is enormous on its own
Strip away the courtroom and this would still be the game of the season so far — Sky Sports calls it the standout tie of the weekend, and the form backs that up. City have won all five: the 5-3 thriller over Sunderland before the break — Antoine Semenyo with a brace, Enzo Fernández scoring his first goal in a City shirt — showed a team that scores in waves even when it defends in puddles. They are also the reigning League Cup holders, having beaten Arsenal in the final with a Nico O’Reilly double. Semenyo, signed to be the difference in exactly these games, keeps delivering.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are the great unknown of the title race. Unbeaten under Iraola at 2-3-0, but as NBC noted this week, they haven’t really got going — especially in attack. The defense has found some balance, which was desperately needed, and the 1-0 win at Bournemouth before the break — Alexander Isak with the second-half winner — was the kind of ugly result title teams collect. Isak has four league goals, second-most in the division. The recent history is split down the middle: City won 2-1 at Anfield in February; City won 3-0 at the Etihad last November. Nobody owns this fixture.
The team news is a minefield
This is where the international break may have done its real damage. Haaland asked to be substituted for Norway in the 2-1 loss to Portugal, limping off just after the hour — if he doesn’t make it, City lose the one player who settles every big game. Nico O’Reilly withdrew from the England squad after the first two games and is back in Manchester for assessment. For Liverpool, Isak pulled out of the Sweden squad with a minor issue and returned to Merseyside for checks; Cody Gakpo was taken off for the Netherlands in their second Nations League game with no update since; and Hugo Ekitike remains out until the new year after rupturing his achilles last season. Honest answer: nobody knows anything until Friday’s press conferences. Anyone selling you predicted lineups today is guessing.
The elephant in the room
You cannot preview this game without the verdict, so here it is in one place: on September 29 the Premier League announced an independent commission had found City guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the financial rules over nine seasons — 114 of 115 charges total — including “sham” contracts that disguised more than £830 million in owner funding as sponsorship revenue, and witnesses the commission said gave false and dishonest evidence. City lodged their appeal on October 1, claiming “irrefutable” evidence and “clear material errors of law, principle and fact.” Their expected argument — the money came from the Abu Dhabi government, not the owners — was called “concocted” by the commission and has reportedly been contradicted by sponsor Etihad itself. Soriano called the whole case a “conspiracy theory” in a video to staff and players.
The timeline: the appeal hearing must finish within 12 weeks of the appeal — by Christmas Eve — with a decision within 30 days after. Sanctions are a separate, confidential matter: fine, points deduction, or expulsion. A number of rival clubs fear political interference after the prime minister said he would be “really concerned” if City’s owners sold. Four clubs — Manchester United among them — were told the verdict before everyone else, and compensation claims are already decided in principle. All of that walks into Anfield with the players on Sunday. Our daily roundup has the full state of play.
What it actually means
City win, and it’s six from six with a six-point cushion — the machine keeps rolling and the title race is on life support by mid-October. Liverpool win, and the gap is three, the race blows open, and Arsenal and everyone else start believing. A draw keeps City top and unbeaten, Liverpool unbeaten, and the whole thing simmering into the winter. On paper, City’s attack against Liverpool’s new defensive balance is the entire game. In reality, the paper might be the least interesting thing about Sunday.