The ongoing financial scandal enveloping Manchester City isn’t affecting the team’s results in the Premier League.
Or Erling Haaland ’s appetite for scoring goals. The seismic verdict threatens the club’s place in England’s lucrative top flight, though City continues to protest its innocence and has appealed. City secured a seventh straight win to open the league by beating Ipswich 3-2 at home on Saturday, with Haaland netting twice to move to a competition-high eight goals for a campaign being played under a cloud of controversy. It 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.
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. Pedro Neto scored early and late in the second half to lead Chelsea to a 2-0 win at Everton in a match marred by a serious-looking head injury to Chelsea goalkeeper Emi Martinez .
City manager Enzo Maresca believes the saga has galvanized 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.
“Going down with the City,” was the chant by some home fans in the first half at Etihad Stadium as they watched their team extend their lead in the league to six points. Second-place Arsenal will visit Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
