Liverpool fans greeted Manchester City with a barrage of chants and banners at Anfield on Sunday, in a match billed as one of the most emotionally charged club fixtures in recent years. It was City’s first game since being found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules. The visitors left with three points, but not without facing open scorn from the home supporters.
City avoided the hostile welcome that many had expected. Their team bus did not take the usual route to the stadium. Instead, it entered through a different gate, normally used by service vehicles on match days. Enzo Maresca’s side also avoided the flares, pyrotechnics and attacks on the bus that City faced during a Champions League visit to Anfield eight years ago.
Banners target the sham contracts verdict
The sharpest attacks focused on the commission’s finding that City “arranged ‘sham’ contracts” with several commercial partners. Fans unfurled a long, strip-like banner across the stand behind City’s goal. It spelled out the word “cheats”, with the British pound sign replacing the letter “e” 115 times. The verdict found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges.
Other displays turned to music. Liam Gallagher, lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis, has described himself as a lifelong City fan, and he was among the travelling supporters at Anfield. Liverpool fans borrowed lyrics from some of Oasis’s biggest hits to mock the club. One banner used a line from Stop Crying Your Heart Out, while another carried a stanza from Where Did It All Go Wrong?
That second banner made a point about City’s trophy haul. Many of the titles the club won during the 2009-2018 period came with teams built around global football stars, and Liverpool supporters used the chance to say they had felt cheated as City collected silverware.
Guardiola’s empire and City’s fan retort
Liverpool fans also targeted the club’s former manager, Pep Guardiola. They mocked the empire he built during his decade in charge, a period that brought 20 trophies. Many of the signings he made were among the biggest names in the game.
City supporters answered with their own mocking display. They waved inflatable bananas at the away end. The gesture referred to a decades-long tradition that began when a City fan took a blow-up banana to a match in 1987. It also made a dig at Steven Gerrard, then Liverpool’s captain, who slipped during a 2013-2014 match against Chelsea. That 0-2 defeat, according to the account, set off a run of results that helped City clinch a come-from-behind Premier League title.
