Manchester City Silence Anfield: 3-0 Win Over Liverpool in First Game Since Guilty Verdict

LIVERPOOL

It was supposed to be a day of reckoning. Anfield had rehearsed this one for weeks — the songs, the banners, the pure theater of the Premier League's first fixture against Manchester City since an independent commission found the club guilty of more than 100 financial breaches. Instead, the loudest sound by the end was the inflatable bananas being waved in the away end, and the Poznan being performed with a glee that bordered on insolence.

City won 3-0, and the scoreline flattered Liverpool. For an hour this was a genuine contest — scoreless, tense, the Kop in full voice. Then Ryan Gravenberch got himself sent off for a second bookable offence, City scored twice in six minutes, and the day that was meant to be judgment turned into an execution.

The details will sting on Merseyside. Gravenberch had been booked at the start of the second half for a challenge on Elliot Anderson and tangled with substitute Jeremy Doku in the 61st minute; the Dutchman had no complaints as the second yellow came out. Three minutes later, Doku cut inside the area, his shot was deflected by Alexis Mac Allister into the path of Erling Haaland, and the striker lashed a vicious left-footed half-volley beyond Alisson. That is now eight goals in Haaland's past eight appearances against Liverpool in all competitions.

Three minutes after that, Doku — who had only just come on and tormented Liverpool from the moment he arrived — cut in off the left and curled a sumptuous strike into the top corner from just inside the area. Anfield, bar the ecstatic away end, went silent. And in the 77th minute, the goal of the afternoon: Doku and Anderson combined on the edge of the area, Doku passed into the box, Cherki dummied to take it but let it roll on to Gvardiol, whose little flick behind his standing leg found Cherki, who sat Alisson down, feinted one way, went the other, and rolled the ball into the net.

Liverpool's problems were not only disciplinary. The Sky cameras picked out Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai in various parts of the ground — none of them on the pitch, and Liverpool looked blunt without them. Bradley Barcola was peripheral, Florian Wirtz worked hard but found himself floored after a duel with fellow £100m man Elliot Anderson, and the hosts' best moments came early, when Lewis Koumas forced a couple of saves from Gianluigi Donnarumma and Víctor Muñoz gave City's left flank a thorough examination after his £34.5m summer arrival from Osasuna.

But the story off the pitch will run longer than the football. The Kop's welcome was exactly as billed, according to the Times' reporters inside Anfield: "cheats" every time a City player touched the ball, "Guilty 114" on banners, a giant "Che£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££ats" stretched across the front of the stand, and "You cheating bastards, you know what you are" ringing out before kick-off. City's fans answered with their own defiance, according to the same Times report — the old inflatable bananas, a tradition dating back to a 1987 trip to Maine Road; the Poznan; "Have you ever won the Treble, have you f**k?" and, tongue firmly in cheek, "We're Man City, we'll cheat when we want." Noel Gallagher was in the crowd, watching his club's post-verdict era begin in the most emphatic way imaginable.

The verdict itself, for clarity: an independent commission found City guilty on all counts of financial rule breaches from the 2009/10 season to 2017/18, including sham contracts and artificially inflated sponsorship deals, as reported by the Times and talkSPORT. City have lodged an appeal, insisting on their innocence and claiming — in the club’s words, according to talkSPORT — a "comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence" in their defense — and talkSPORT reported that an appeal hearing is expected in the coming weeks. The sanctions question, which hung over all of this like a thundercloud, remains unanswered. What we know for certain is that nothing on the pitch looks like a club weighed down by it: six wins from six, three points clear of holders Arsenal, and a goal difference that keeps growing.

In the directors' box, the optics were noted. City's high-profile delegation was led by CEO Ferran Soriano and sporting director Hugo Viana, seated a row behind the Liverpool officials — but chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak was not among them. Across from them sat Liverpool chairman Tom Werner alongside Amit Bhatia, whose 1892 Holdings consortium is awaiting regulatory approval to purchase 38 per cent of Liverpool from Fenway Sports Group. Whatever the future ownership structure at Anfield looks like, the footballing gap between these two right now is the thing that should worry the home side.

There was also a postscript about the touchline. TalkSPORT reported after the match that City did not allow manager Enzo Maresca to speak to radio stations — a breach of broadcasting rules that the club did not explain. It added an odd, defiant coda to the afternoon: the team that answered everything on the pitch refused to answer anything off it.

And the afternoon did not end at the final whistle. The Manchester Evening News reported that police had to intervene as fans left the stadium, with scuffling outside the away end and a small group of City supporters swiftly surrounded by officers as tensions grew. A video posted by MEN reporter Chris Slater showed one Liverpool fan being pepper-sprayed by officers who also drew their batons — but the police managed to prevent any physical altercations between the two sets of supporters, and there was no further trouble as fans headed home. TalkSPORT noted there had been little, if any, disorder before or during the match, despite the heavy police presence and the highly charged occasion.

Elliot Anderson told Sky Sports, striking the tone City clearly want: togetherness in the face of the noise. "We've shown real togetherness and fight. It's a tough place to come and it's challenging. We really stuck together out there, fought for each other and played well."

Elsewhere on Sunday, Crystal Palace beat Nottingham Forest 3-1 at Selhurst Park on Oliver Glasner's return to his old club, and Hull City drew 2-2 with Everton.

For more on the road to this fixture, see our explainer on the guilty verdict and what comes next, our Super Sunday preview from Anfield, Enzo Maresca's verdict-era press conference, and our Super Sunday verdict-era build-up.