Gary Neville warned Manchester City's players they can expect more chants of "cheats" after Liverpool supporters made their feelings known. City rose above the noise to beat Liverpool 3-0 and maintain their unbeaten start to the Premier League season on Sunday afternoon.
The result only told half of the story as the Etihad club was playing for the first time since it was found guilty of more than 100 breaches of the Premier League's financial rules during a nine-season period. City's players were booed throughout, while they were also berated with chants of "cheats", and Neville believes it is a chant that could catch on.
Neville's warning on the chant
"That is brutal," he said on commentary towards the end of the game as the Kop made their feelings clear. "The players out there are being called cheats. That's one of the worst things you can be called. That one could catch on across the grounds and across the country until the punishment does come in."
Haaland and Anderson react
Goals from Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki secured Enzo Maresca's side all three points. "Every single person part of Man City, and every fan, this is a lovely moment that will stay with us for a long time," Haaland said. "It was tough, it was hard but we showed amazing character from back to front. So proud of everyone."
"It's always tough to come here, if you look at the record it's tough. With the Pep and Klopp era it was tough for both teams, always has been. Important to stay strong mentally, stick together and do what you can do something about and the thing we can do something about is to play good football and fight together. That's the only thing we can do."
While team-mate Elliot Anderson hailed his side's courage, saying: "I think we've shown real togetherness and fight. It's a tough place to come and it's challenging and we really stuck together out there, fought for each other and played well as well. I think we've shown courage here."
Asked about the booing from Liverpool fans, Anderson added: "It was definitely more than normal, arriving in and the first 10 minutes of the game, but I thought we did really well to quieten the crowd."
Haaland, though, argued it was not that different to a regular game at Anfield, saying: "Not really, it's always tough to come here. With the Pep (Guardiola) and (Jurgen) Klopp era, it was so tough for both teams. It's about these times, stay strong mentally, stick together and do what you can do something about, and what we can do something about is to play good football and to fight together."
