The ongoing financial scandal enveloping Manchester City is not affecting the team’s results in the Premier League, nor has it diminished Erling Haaland’s appetite for goals.
Playing in front of fans waving inflatable bananas, City became only the third team to open a Premier League season with seven straight wins by beating Ipswich 3-2 at home on Saturday. Haaland netted twice to move to a season-high eight goals for a campaign being played under a cloud of controversy.
That made it back-to-back victories in the league for City, either side of a 4-2 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, since being found guilty of large-scale financial wrongdoing in the Premier League for nearly a decade. The seismic verdict threatens the club’s place in England’s lucrative top flight, though City continue to protest their innocence and have appealed.
City manager Enzo Maresca believes the saga has galvanised the squad, and the defiance among the fanbase continued, with many supporters bringing along inflatable bananas – a throwback to an item that fans brought to games in the 1980s for fun amid tough times for the team – for Ipswich’s visit. They also jeered the Premier League anthem before kickoff.
“The fans, the club, the players – we are all together in this journey,” Maresca said of City’s defiance in troubled times.
“Going down with the City” was the chant by some home fans in the first half at the Etihad Stadium as they watched their team extend their lead in the league to six points.
Haaland and second-half substitute Antoine Semenyo were seen hobbling off the field at the end of the game, which finished with Ipswich grabbing its second goal in stoppage time and piling on the pressure in the final minutes.
The Norwegian has become the fastest player in Premier League history to score 100 non-penalty goals. It took him 139 matches to achieve this record.
Maresca said Haaland, who had taken a blow to the foot late in the match, was not worried.
“We will see,” Maresca said. “I asked him, and he said he was OK, so hopefully it is nothing serious.”
Maresca added that Semenyo’s injury might be more serious.
Maresca became the first manager to win his first seven Premier League games in charge of a team.
“I didn’t expect to win seven out of seven,” said Maresca, who replaced Pep Guardiola in the off season, “but we are working well, working good.”
Chelsea (in 2005) and Liverpool (in 2019) are the other teams to win at least their first seven games of a Premier League season – and they both went on to win the title.
Earlier, Liverpool came from behind to win 2-1 at nine-man Brentford but lost two more players to injury in a busy stretch of fixtures.
Trailing to Keane Lewis-Potter’s 44th-minute header, Liverpool found themselves with a man advantage when Brentford midfielder Yehor Yarmoliuk was shown a red card in first-half stoppage time for aiming a head-butt at Jeremy Jacquet.
Liverpool took advantage, with Victor Munoz and Alexander Isak scoring after the break to consign Brentford to their first league defeat this season.
Vitaly Janelt became the second Brentford player to be sent off after getting a second yellow card in second-half stoppage time.
Isak has just returned from an injury sustained on international duty with Sweden, but two players are back on the treatment table, with Dominik Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong – a half-time substitute – forced off with injuries.
Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola said Szoboszlai’s problem was the recurrence of the hamstring injury he got while playing for Hungary in the recent international break.
Johan Manzambi, who could easily have joined Newcastle in the off season, grabbed the winner against the team for Aston Villa.
The 21-year-old Switzerland midfielder scored for the third time in four games to seal Villa’s 1-0 victory at St James’ Park in Newcastle.
It would have been a painful sight for Newcastle, who reached an agreement with Freiburg to sign Manzambi after his impressive World Cup performances, but not with the player himself. Now he is thriving for Villa.
Fulham eased the pressure on manager Alvaro Arbeloa by beating Hull 1-0 for their first league win of the season.
Alex Iwobi scored the goal in the 33rd minute, helping Fulham climb off the bottom of the table – much to the relief of Arbeloa, the former Real Madrid coach who arrived in the off season.