Anfield had a second contest running alongside Liverpool’s meeting with Manchester City on Sunday: one played in song, on banners and in a sustained chorus of disapproval from the home end.
In the dressing room
This was City’s first fixture since the Premier League’s 29 September ruling that found the club guilty of 115 breaches of its financial regulations, relating to the period from 2009 to 2018. The prospect of punishment hung over the occasion as clearly as the match itself.
Outside the ground and around the stands, Liverpool supporters displayed dozens of flags and placards branding City “cheats”. One banner said that an entire generation of supporters had been deceived. The same accusation was carried into the chants throughout the afternoon.
For many in the Liverpool crowd, the anger was tied to the title races of the Jürgen Klopp years. Supporters argued that Klopp ought to have left the club with two further league championships, believing City had denied Liverpool those prizes.
| Period | Premier League winners | Manager detail |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 to 2024-25 | Manchester City or Liverpool in every season | City won six under Pep Guardiola; Liverpool won one under Jürgen Klopp and one under Arne Slot |
Noise from the stands
City’s players were jeered as soon as they emerged to warm up and were booed again whenever they had possession during the game. The stands treated it as a familiar Liverpool-City confrontation, only with the recent verdict giving every chant extra edge.
City’s travelling support answered in its own fashion. Fans carrying inflatable bananas made their presence known and voiced backing for the club’s owners, while Liverpool’s end maintained its hostile message.
What hangs over City
The possible consequences now range from a points deduction to the removal of honours or even expulsion from the competition. That uncertainty ensured the issue followed City into Anfield, turning a major fixture into an afternoon in which the argument around English football was impossible to keep outside the turnstiles.
The week ahead will bring no escape from that atmosphere. City’s football will continue under the shadow of the sanctions debate, while Liverpool supporters have made plain that they regard the matter not as an administrative dispute, but as a grievance reaching back through the title races of the past decade.
