The ongoing financial scandal enveloping Manchester City is not affecting the team’s results in the Premier League, nor has it diminished Erling Haaland’s appetite for goals.
Playing in front of fans waving inflatable bananas, City became only the third team to open a Premier League season with seven straight wins by beating Ipswich 3-2 at home on Saturday. Haaland netted twice to move to a season-high eight goals for a campaign being played under a cloud of controversy.
That made it back-to-back victories in the League for City, either side of a 4-2 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, since being found guilty of large-scale financial wrongdoing in the Premier League for nearly a decade. The seismic verdict threatens the club’s place in England’s lucrative top flight, though City continue to protest their innocence and have appealed.
City Manager Enzo Maresca believes the saga has galvanised the squad, and the defiance among the fanbase continued, with many supporters bringing along inflatable bananas – a throwback to an item that fans brought to games in the 1980s for fun amid tough times for the team – for Ipswich’s visit. They also jeered the Premier League anthem before kickoff.
‘The fans, the club, the players – we are all together in this journey,’ Maresca said of City’s defiance in troubled times.
‘Going down with the City’ was the chant by some home fans in the first half at the Etihad Stadium as they watched their team extend their lead in the league to six points.
Haaland and second-half substitute Antoine Semenyo were seen hobbling off the field at the end of the game, which finished with Ipswich grabbing its second goal in stoppage time and piling on the pressure in the final minutes.
The Norwegian has become the fastest player in Premier League history to score 100 non-penalty goals. It took him 139 matches to achieve this record.
Maresca said Haaland, who had taken a blow to the foot late in the match, was not worried.
Maresca also became the first Manager to win his first seven Premier League games in charge of a team.