Total Farce! Man City Playing on Without Punishment is Making the Whole Premier League Season Almost Meaningless

Enzo Maresca’s side continued their faultless start to the season at Anfield, but there is now a dark cloud hanging over the team that brings the English top-flight into disrepute

Manchester City’s first game since being found guilty of 114 breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules was, in the end, a walk in the park. The first hour or so was tense as the 56,000 angry Liverpool fans packed into Anfield created a hostile atmosphere through the use of ‘Shamchester’ and ‘Cheat’ banners as well as chants of “You haven’t won a trophy since 1967” – referencing the last trophy City earned before their Abu Dhabi takeover in 2009 that kickstarted the nine-year period of shame at the Etihad.

The stadium DJ even played their part with a selection of not-so-subtle subtle song choices before and after the game, from the ‘Joker and the Thief’ by Wolfmother to ‘Little Lies’ by Fleetwood Mac. But after Ryan Gravenberch was sent off for a second bookable offence, City romped to a comfortable 3-0 win thanks to second-half goals from Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki to maintain their perfect start to the Premier League season.

It was a statement victory against the club that perhaps has the most reason to feel robbed; Liverpool finished runners-up to City in both 2013-14 and 2018-19, missing out by a single point in the latter campaign. They would also no doubt argue that their narrow loss in the 2021-22 title race was also a direct result of City’s off-pitch deception.

City have appealed the Premier League’s verdict, and no one knows for certain when that process will be completed. They are guilty until proven innocent, not just in the eyes of the Premier League bosses, but in the court of public opinion too. For that reason, Sunday’s victory felt meaningless, and so will every other win City pick up until a final resolution is delivered.

There is a trivial feel to the division as a whole now, too, because every single club could claim to be adversely affected by City’s continued success.

Siege mentality

The City players are standing tall in the face of adversity, but their efforts are unlikely to count for anything tangible

City’s current crop of players, as well as Maresca and his coaching staff, are all blameless in this situation. All they can do is remain professional and try to stay on an upward trajectory, with the help of a loyal fanbase that is fully behind them. Indeed, City fans put on a defiant display of gallows humour by waving hundreds of inflatable bananas at Anfield, rekindling a tradition from the 1980s when they were playing in the second tier.

All of the controversy surrounding the club has generated a siege mentality that perhaps makes City a more dangerous team than ever. “We knew there was going to be noise, but we need to make our own noise by winning games,” Maresca said afterwards, having celebrated fervently with his squad in a manner that more befitted a cup final triumph than a league win.

Haaland went a step further: “For every single person part of Manchester City, every fan, this is a lovely moment that will stay with us for a long time. It was tough. It was hard, but we showed amazing character from back to front. So proud of everyone.” City clearly don’t care about being hated; they’ll use it as motivational fuel.

For everyone on the outside, though, it was a difficult, and strange watch. At the peak of Pep Guardiola’s era, you had to marvel at the brilliance of City’s football and respect it. Now all of that has been tainted, and so too are the efforts of Haaland and Co under Maresca. There’s no grudging appreciation anymore, only pure rage and an overwhelming sense of injustice that threatens the sanctity of the Premier League.

It doesn’t matter how much character City show, they’ve been reduced to agents of anarchy who are quite literally just playing for pride. If they are eventually hit with the massive points deduction that is expected, and potentially relegated, these wins won’t count for anything, and rivals like Liverpool will have the last laugh.

‘Sham league’

The Premier League risks being consumed by negativity, and City’s reputation will continue to suffer in the coming weeks and months

On the flip side, if City are somehow successful with their appeal, the Premier League brand could be broken beyond repair, because no one would accept their systemic financial misconduct going unpunished, or even a ‘slap on the wrist’ sanction like a fine. If City are not forced to start again from the ground up, without the backing of their current ownership regime, most people will question their legitimacy as a footballing institution going forward.

City’s reputation is in ruins as it stands, and it will get worse the longer this saga goes on. When Maresca’s team was announced at Anfield, it was almost completely drowned out by chants of, “Going down, going down, going down!”, and towards the end of the game, every touch from a City player was greeted by shouts of ‘cheat’. They are going to have to deal with that every single week.

“If you could take me off Man City games for the next few months then great,” Manchester United legend Gary Neville said in the Sky Sports studio. “People will think it’s a sham league and you can’t get the negativity out of your head. I don’t think they [City supporters] recognise now the stain, the stigma and the damage this is going to do to them.”

Ex-Arsenal star Paul Merson also had his say on Sky’s Soccer Saturday, and aptly summed up the widespread impact of City’s actions behind the scenes. “Ask yourself one question: Would Man City have won the Premier League if they didn’t do what they were doing? Absolutely no chance,” he said. “They’ve won the league because of them upstairs. They had the two best players in every position and if it weren’t for upstairs, they wouldn’t have been able to do it.

“It don’t matter about the medals, it is about the moments. They have taken moments away from other people. Life is all about moments, and you have taken it away from other people. Them upstairs at Man City have nicked other peoples’ moments in life.”

Darkest days

If everything runs smoothly, City could know their fate well before the end of the season, but it’s a big ‘if’

City are three points clear of Arsenal at the Premier League summit after six games, and look strong enough to dethrone the champions after a £450 million ($596m) summer transfer splurge, with the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Elliot Anderson, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Illiman Ndiaye adding even greater depth to what was already a top-quality squad. The trophy presentation in May would be beyond awkward if they pull it off.

It surely cannot be allowed to happen, can it? City’s first four title successes are already being viewed as unlawful, and it’s unthinkable that another could be added to the mix. Three years went by before a judgement was made on City’s financial charges; that should have been plenty enough time for a punishment decision to be made too.

Now fans of the Premier League are stuck in a kind of purgatory, and there’s a serious risk that this season turns out to be a complete waste of time. Arsenal will probably be most frustrated with the current state of play; they’d likely run away with the league if City were out of the picture, and have more in the tank for their latest Champions League bid. It’s difficult to imagine Mikel Arteta staying quiet if they fall short on both fronts.

At the other end of the table, more than a few of the clubs fighting relegation may end up writing off six invaluable points to City that could have made a world of difference. Those in contention for European qualification would have grounds to complain, too. Many more ‘moments’ swiped away.

It has been reported that City’s appeal could be heard from December 14, and the three-member independent board will then have a maximum of 30 days to deliver its final verdict. However, City deployed numerous delaying tactics throughout the investigation into their financial breaches, and legal experts are predicting they will take a similar approach with the appeal.

The original independent panel will meet to determine the sanctions that should be applied to City, with ESPN reporting that the process will run parallel to the appeal, and if everything were to go smoothly, we could get a judgement and implementation of punishments by mid-February. That might just about preserve the spirit of the competition with three months left of the campaign.

Anything longer than that, though, and it’s liable to descend into farce. As of this weekend, watching the Premier League became an exercise in patience and endurance akin to pre-season. The stakes will feel almost non-existent for some time yet, and no meaning will be attached to anything that City achieve. English football’s darkest days are upon us.