Liverpool return to Premier League action this weekend with a bang as they welcome Manchester City to Anfield. The match was always going to be one of the most eagerly anticipated on the fixture calendar.
But given it will be City's first fixture since the club was found guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the top-flight's financial rules over a nine-season period, it's safe to say that Sunday's showdown has just got that bigger.
Especially when Liverpool, more than most clubs, will feel wronged by what the Etihad Stadium club have been found to have done between the years of 2009 and 2018.
Fans' jury: 'Anfield will be bubbling with righteous anger'
Rhys Buchanan: "Games don't come much bigger than Sunday afternoon do they? The noise around Man City has been rightly deafening over the long international break and naturally the footballing world will be watching on to see how their first fixture back since plays out. The truth is, the circumstances are much bigger than whatever happens on the pitch."
"I'm expecting a totally professional performance from a team who have won every game in their campaign so far, but with the added confirmation and damning recent verdicts, Anfield will be bubbling with righteous anger from the first whistle that will make it very difficult for them."
Matthew Whitty: "You couldn't have scripted it better. Manchester City arrive at Anfield on Sunday having been found guilty of serious financial breaches by an independent commission. They've appealed, as expected, but that's for another day."
A 'cathartic release' and a 'match-winning cauldron'
Whitty added: "The Klopp–Guardiola era brought record points totals, titles decided by wafer-thin margins, euphoric highs and crushing lows. Those battles wrung just about every emotion imaginable out of us. As if this fixture needed any more edge."
"Anfield is special when we're united behind a cause, and on Sunday we've certainly got one. Add a sense of injustice and the Kop will be at its ferocious, feral best. With City in outstanding form, Anfield must be as relentless as we expect our players to be."
"A win won't rewrite history or erase lingering questions, but beating City with the whole ground behind Liverpool would provide a much-needed cathartic release."
James Noble noted: "An independent commission finding City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League – including all related to serious financial breaches between 2009/10 and 2017/18 – has cued a whirlwind of a fortnight."
"City maintain their innocence and have appealed against the long-awaited, and damning, verdict, while the understandable strength and range of feeling throughout football and beyond – about impacts, possible punishments and more – speaks volumes. It will be voiced consistently in grounds over the coming weeks and months."
Noble added: "How Liverpool invigoratingly navigated much of the impacted era now looks additionally praiseworthy. And, significantly, Andoni Iraola's Reds remain in the midst of an encouraging developmental trajectory. This is a late afternoon that could supercharge it, but that process predates this contest and will continue beyond it."
Sunday is an occasion that is likely to have a stand-alone essence to it, but it will have to be moved on from quickly. Trips to LASK and Brentford follow within six days.
