Manchester City shrugged off the threat of sanctions to beat 10-man Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield on Sunday in their first game since being found guilty on more than 100 charges of breaking Premier League financial rules.
Second half goals from Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki extended City’s flawless start under Enzo Maresca after Ryan Gravenberch was sent-off for two yellow cards in the 62nd minute.
Super Sport reports that Victory reestablishes City’s three-point lead at the top of the table on 18 points after six wins from six, but the future of any title challenge rests on the outcome of the club’s appeal against widespread financial impropriety.
Liverpool drop to ninth after their first league loss.
An independent commission found City and their Emirati owners arranged “sham” deals to artificially inflate revenues and reduce costs by more than £900 million ($1.2 billion) between 2009 and 2018, with the verdict confirmed last Friday.
No sanction has yet been handed down, but a severe points deduction or even expulsion from the English top-flight are on the table unless City overturn the decision. There has even been speculation there could be retrospective action to strip titles.
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Liverpool were one of the clubs most affected, having finished second to City three times in the past 12 years.
City arrived under police escort and while Liverpool fans lined the streets to greet them with chants of cheats and going down, there was no repeat of the violent scenes when their team bus was pelted by bottles ahead of a Champions League clash in 2018.
The home side briefly flickered into life at the start of the second half when Lewis Koumas was denied a goal on his first Premier League start by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
City’s economic might was in full show as Maresca turned to Jeremy Doku off the bench in the 56th minute. Within minutes the Belgian winger had been chopped down by Gravenberch, who was shown a second booking.
Doku’s deflected shot was then smashed home by Haaland to break the deadlock on 65 minutes and open the floodgates. Three minutes later Doku curled a sensational strike into the top corner himself.
Cherki then exchanged a slick one-two with Josko Gvardiol before slotting under Alisson Becker in the 78th minute to rub salt in Liverpool wounds and secure back-to-back league wins at Anfield for the first time since 1953.
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