Manchester City return to Premier League duty at the Etihad with the noise around the club as loud as ever, and the expected sight of inflatable bananas in the stands offering a familiar show of defiance from the home support.
Key takeaways
- City are back at home in the league following a ruling concerning 114 financial-rule breaches across a decade, with the case said to involve €1 billion.
- Supporters are expected to bring inflatable bananas to the Etihad as a symbol of backing for the club.
- Enzo Maresca could become the first Premier League manager to win his opening seven matches with a club if City beat Ipswich.
- City have taken 18 points from six league fixtures, scoring 16 times and conceding five.
- Arsenal sit second on 16 points, with the pre-match picture describing City as three points clear.
A charged afternoon at the Etihad
This is City’s first home Premier League match since the financial case delivered its verdict, following a period in which the club were found to have breached the rules on 114 occasions over ten years. The scale of the alleged financial issues has been put at €1 billion.
Yet the anticipated mood inside the ground is one of solidarity rather than a formally organised protest against the Premier League. The inflatable bananas, seen at earlier points in the club’s past, have become a visual marker of identity, pride and resistance for sections of the blue support. They are expected to return as fans respond to what they regard as a particularly difficult chapter in the club’s recent history.
Maresca admitted he was not familiar with the origin of the tradition, but said he hoped the stands would be full of them. “I do not know the story behind the bananas, but I hope we see many more of them in the crowd tomorrow,” he said.
The manager arrives at the Ipswich fixture after a sharply contrasting pair of results: a 4-2 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, followed by a 3-0 victory at Anfield against Liverpool, where Guardiola’s former club received City with little warmth.
In the league, however, City’s start has been near-perfect. Six wins have produced 18 points, 16 goals and only five conceded. Victory over Ipswich would make Maresca the first manager in Premier League history to win each of his first seven games in charge of a club, moving beyond the six-match opening sequences recorded by Pep Guardiola, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Carlo Ancelotti.
