Manchester City maintained their 100% start to the season with a comprehensive 3-0 win at Anfield, their first outing since the club were found guilty on 114 charges relating to Premier League financial rules. Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki scored the goals as Enzo Maresca’s side recorded a sixth successive league win, a result that kept them at the top of the table and equalled the best start to a managerial reign in Premier League history.
Maresca framed the performance as a deliberate response to the circumstances surrounding the club. “My message to the players since we were together three days ago, when they all came back from their national teams, has been quite clear: guys, the noise will always be there so it’s about how we learn to deal with the noise and it’s our duty to make our noise,” the City head coach said. “Our noise is to win games in the way we did today and to be happy. It was our fans making the noise at the end of the game today.”
Asked whether he needed City’s appeal to be heard quickly in order to enjoy such a result, Maresca smiled. “You cannot imagine how happy I am,” he replied. “I don’t care. I’m here to try and prepare games and to win games. Hopefully I can speak about this situation when we win the appeal.”
City’s chief executive Ferran Soriano was present at Anfield as the fallout from the guilty verdict continues. Maresca said the club had chosen to attend together because of the scale of the fixture. “We were all together. For the importance of the game, Liverpool away, Anfield away, it was a good idea from the club to be all together. That togetherness is what we need.”
The match turned on the 62nd-minute dismissal of Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch for a second bookable offence. Haaland opened the scoring a minute later, and City ran riot from there. Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola described the contest as two different games. “We played two different games: one until the red card, and one from the red card until the end,” he said. “I think we were the better team until the red card and they were better than us, obviously, after the red card. But I think the players deserve credit today because they’ve given everything.”
Iraola insisted the red card was harsh. “I think the first foul of Ryan is never a yellow card, never,” he added. “The referee doesn’t even call the foul straight away. He lets it go, Elliot Anderson does a couple of steps and then decides to go down. I don’t know why he shows the yellow card after that because it’s not a situation where it leaves an advantage.”