Liverpool 0-3 Man City - what does it mean?

James Richardson (0:00)

Live from downtown London, it's The Totally Football Show.

Today, awkward, Man City win at Anfield, plunging the table into an existential dilemma, as Team In The Dock put in the docku to devastating effect. We'll talk about that, the news elsewhere. Jordan's alive, Enzo's braids from Jordan's not so much, Pickford's late pickle, and all the weekend's action from the Seagulls and the Eagles to the Tigers and the Cheetahs, in this Totally Football Show. It's Sunday the 11th of October. Tom Williams is here in the studio with us.

Tom Williams (0:37)

Hello James.

James Richardson (0:38)

Welcome back from Paris, Tom.

Tom Williams (0:39)

Thank you very much.

James Richardson (0:40)

Welcome to Adrian Clarke, who's just returned from doing the comms on the Man City game.

Adrian Clarke (0:45)

I did, yeah. The result that no one outside of Manchester City wanted, really.

James Richardson (0:50)

Well, lots of Manchester City fans, players, etc. were pretty happy at the end of that. Colin Miller's with us as well.

Colin Miller (0:57)

Hello, James.

James Richardson (0:58)

Hello to you as well. Yeah, we've just seen the events at Anfield. Lots of you joining us live commenting on it, by the way.

Let's see. Ever 2000 says, to be honest, not sure that 3-0 win was in City or the league's long-term interests. I guess because it draws attention to things. Andrew Turner says, this Premier League season has no credibility until City are sanctioned.

Andy Sutton says, this defiance from City is unbelievable. You haven't been wronged. You've been cheating. Was this something that struck everybody else? How effusive City were in their celebrations, almost goading, almost gloating.

Adrian Clarke (1:43)

I felt that. I did. It left a little bit of a sour taste in the mouth, if I'm honest. I thought there was a lot of smirking, a lot of Maresca's beaming smile was a bit galling to watch. There was just no contrition, no sort of humbleness at all about City, was there? It was just basically it felt as if they were laughing at the rest of the Premier League. And that, I think, will only strengthen the resolve of the other clubs and the supporters of the other clubs to get on their backs in the way that Liverpool fans tried to early on in this game. You know, they are public enemy number one. I understand that they've won at Anfield.

They're proud of their performance. But it was, I thought, yeah, just a little bit unpleasant to watch. And I think it could backfire on them.

Tom Williams (2:30)

But you can also understand it. You know, the players and the coaching staff are in such an invidious position. You know, what is an appropriate way for them to behave?

You know, when it comes to celebrating goals, celebrating wins, particularly when the club hierarchy are still fighting this and refusing to accept their guilt and refusing to accept responsibility. So if the players modify their behaviour at all, they're kind of going against what the club is telling them to do. I share Adrian's reservations. It was very galling to see them kind of like rubbing it in in that way. But you try and put yourself in that changing room, in the minds of those city players, what are they supposed to think? How are they supposed to, you know, how are they supposed to carry themselves while we exist in this hinterland between the announcement of the guilty verdict and the conclusion of the appeal and then, you know, the eventual sanctions?

Adrian Clarke (3:29)

I think that's a fair point. Colin?

Colin Miller (3:31)

Yeah, I mean, I kind of agree with both Adrian and Tom on this in the sense that this has never happened before. Obviously, it's unprecedented, not just in terms of the scale of the judgment, but also in terms of if you're a footballer and you're in this situation, you just don't really know what to compare it to. Obviously, there have been punishments in the past, but those have sort of been definitive at an end of a season or a conclusive result of that, not during a middle of the season, not whilst players are kind of just going game to game. And we kind of thought, how would those players react to that?

Would it be something that would negatively impact them? Of course, they're thinking about their futures, or could it be something that brings them together on the basis of today, probably the latter? But having said that, I mean, this game was very much changed by the red card decision. Up until now, it was very much a better season contest.