Toxicity and uncertainty await Man City - will their season even matter?

Manchester City will face an atmosphere of toxicity and hostility they have never experienced before when they walk out to face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

If City made a list of clubs they would prefer not to visit immediately after being found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18, Liverpool would be at the top ringed in red.

The relationship between the clubs has often been fractious for more than a decade, tensions fuelled by a sense of injustice felt by Liverpool fans who believe more Premier League titles should have been theirs instead of City's.

In 2013/14, 2018/19 and 2021/22, Liverpool finished second behind City – on the last two occasions by a single point - in what became, especially with Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp in charge, the defining domestic rivalry in recent years.

Liverpool supporters have long been convinced they would have won those titles had City not wielded the vast financial firepower that brought them under investigation, while those of a sky blue persuasion counter by simply highlighting the enduring brilliance and beauty of the teams Guardiola produced.

City, under new head coach Enzo Maresca, arrive at Anfield continuing to maintain their innocence after launching an appeal against the decision of an independent commission to deliver a guilty verdict.

And they arrive top of the table – but with a shadow cast over the entire season and its potential outcomes as the Premier League weighs up City's punishment, with their appeal running alongside.

As the cloud of City's guilty verdict hangs over the Premier League, each victory will carry a qualification, each league table will contain an unseen asterisk, each achievement viewed through the prism of potential future penalties and the fallout at each end of the top tier.

It has even led to the unheard of suggestion that the entire Premier League season could be rendered meaningless, given the potential scale of the consequences facing City, with talk of expulsion and relegation as well as record points deductions.

This must wait for what is likely to be a lengthy legal process, but it is against this backdrop of bitterness that City play their first league match since the verdict, in an Anfield arena that barely disguised its contempt for their fierce rivals even before that guilty verdict was handed down.

The Kop will be in no mood to await legal finalities or the outcome of an appeal. There will be sound. There will be fury. There will be resentment.

Maresca, who has not only inherited Guardiola's legacy but also the fallout from City's punishment, was calm itself in the face of a barrage of questions at his media briefing before Sunday's game.

While being at pains to point out he was present to preview a game against Liverpool, he said: "The reason I joined this club is that I completely trust, 100%, the owner, the CEO, the sporting director, all the organisation. So I don't have doubt about that.

"It will be a tough game, for sure. We need to be ready, the focus needs to be about the game, but we know the environment at Anfield.

"It probably will be worse because of the situation but, again, it will be our duty to do our best and try to win the game. The reason I decide to become manager is for this type of game."

Maresca placed the emphasis on "when" City win their appeal, as they vehemently insist the commission's ruling contained "clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe".

The commission, in contrast, used the word "sham" eight times when describing City's dealings, including artificially inflating revenue by more than £900m through "sham" deals.

The danger now is, with sanctions and appeals to come, that this could be known in future as the "sham" Premier League season.

City have assumed their familiar position at the top of the table – but is this a title they cannot "win" with a guilty verdict hanging over them?

Former England striker Alan Shearer told BBC Radio 5 Live Sport: "I just think it's such a bad look that we're still having to wait for the consequences.

"We've never seen anything like this. This is the biggest thing to happen to the Premier League since it started in 1992, that's how big it is. Credibility matters and you won't get anything different from any coach or player at Manchester City other than we're going to stick together and we believe in the club.

"They're about to find out the anger from every club, starting at Anfield.

"It needs sorting out now because they've spent a fortune in the summer. They've won every game and that could still be the case in two months, three months, four months. They could end up winning the league. That's why it needs sorting out now because it's such a bad look if it's allowed to fester.

"The level of hostility will rise wherever they go. The ramifications are endless to this case. Where it goes after is something we don't know. It's huge. It really is massive."

Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola, preparing for his first experience of this meeting of Premier League superpowers, admitted: "The worst thing probably is the uncertainty. No-one knows what's going to happen. We have to focus on Liverpool and being the best club we can be, the best team we can be. That's my challenge."

City's insistence that they will clear their name will not prevent a torrid, to put it mildly, Anfield reception.

Former Stoke City manager Tony Pulis, in his BBC Sport column, said: "I loved being the underdog and I loved to prove people wrong, and that is what I would demand now - a siege mentality from my squad and supporters alike to prove to people that, irrespective of what is happening off the pitch, on the field and the terraces we respect our club and we are going to fight on."

In what is sure to be a powder-keg atmosphere inside and outside Anfield, Merseyside Police have said there will be an "appropriate" plan in place.

This will be brought into sharper focus after incidents before a Champions League quarter-final at Anfield in April 2018, when City's team bus was attacked with bottles and flares when it arrived before the game.

Merseyside Police were unable to identify those responsible, despite viewing 130 hours of footage from the disorder, with Liverpool subsequently fined £17,500 by Uefa.

For Maresca and Manchester City's players, shrouded in uncertainty and under threat of future Premier League punishment, Anfield – always a cauldron when they visit – will present the ultimate mental, physical and footballing examination.