Tension, ‘cheat’ banners and inflatable bananas: Manchester City’s welcome to Anfield

Fans lined the streets of Anfield in preparation for the arrival of the Manchester City team bus, with pyrotechnics and pure vitriol adding to the tense pre-match atmosphere. Every vantage point was taken, with spectators standing on walls to get a glimpse of the enemy, only for the coach to sneak in from the opposite side of the ground to avoid confrontation.

The subterfuge defused a volatile situation that could have turned into an incendiary one. Tensions were high on Merseyside. Since the City takeover in 2008, Liverpool have finished second to their rivals on three occasions, although only one of those falls within the parameters of the investigation into City’s financial breaches of Premier League rules. Liverpool supporters are aggrieved, feeling they would have won more trophies had City not circumnavigated the rules to help sign elite players.

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Liverpool were punished in 2018 after supporters launched missiles at the team bus as the City players were driven to Anfield for a Champions League clash. The animosity has only been heightened by the independent commission’s guilty verdict.

References to the verdict were not difficult to find at stalls outside. For £15 – haggling took it down to £10 – it was possible to buy a “Guilty 114” flag, including an AI image of the City squad in prison uniforms or a “Cheats” banner in the style of the Oasis logo.

Many supporters, however, were content with the traditional – and much maligned – half and half scarf to commemorate such an occasion. The fashion-conscious could pick up T-shirts with a similar motif. There were more frugal offerings, with homemade banners carrying the blunt message being paraded around the ground.

There was a sense of injustice and thousands wanted to express it. A solitary City fan, clad in sky blue, stood among the sea of red. He was unbothered by the commotion around him but was left alone because he is not at fault.

Social media chatter suggested City merited a “bus greeting” on Anfield Road and police were prepared for such an eventuality. There was toxicity and hostility on both sides in the buildup, with away supporters chanting their anthem of “City’s going down with a billion in the bank” while waving inflatable bananas, the latter a tradition that goes back to the 1980s. It provides a reminder that City existed for 114 years before Sheikh Mansour’s investment and will continue to do so regardless of what happens in relation to potential sanctions. Many have witnessed City drop to the third tier and win the Champions League, so have experienced both ends of the spectrum already.

The police flew a drone above the route the City bus planned to take into the ground, while officers walked up and down filming those in attendance as the decibels and anger grew.

Every vehicle was treated with suspicion, as theories of subterfuge from City, not for the first time, were discussed. The prospect of sneaking the players and staff into the ground were gossiped about among the crowds but there was no Trojan horse. Instead the official team bus, with full livery, came up the other side of Anfield Road and around the back of the stand that bears its name.

The Liverpool bus arrived to cheers, chants and plenty of red smoke just before 3pm. The eyes stung as the wind blew. The police presence grew closer to the anticipated arrival time on the bus.

Around an hour before kick-off, after City’s coach was whisked up to the ground with its police motorcade, the visiting supporters were given their own escort across Stanley Park. The message was a defiant one, backing the chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, with verses of “We’re Man City, we’ll cheat when we want”. There was mild heckling from home fans in earshot but, like with the bus, it passed without incident. The cheering and jeering carried on while the travelling fans waited to enter the ground but it was nothing out of the ordinary for a football match between two rivals. Calmness had descended.

As City walked on to the pitch for their warm-ups, they were loudly booed by the majority inside the ground, every player’s name mentioned on the public address system receiving the same treatment. City took solace in the bunch of bananas bouncing around the away end in one small corner before football finally took centre stage. Here they had the last laugh too, eventually winning 3-0 to silence the home fans and maintain their lead at the top of the Premier League table. But for how long they stay at the summit or even in the league when their punishment is served, nobody knows.