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.
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 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. 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 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. 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 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.
Hobbling Haaland
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.
Maresca said Haaland, who had taken a blow to the foot late in the match, wasn't worried.
“We will see," Maresca said. "I asked him and he said he was OK, so hopefully it is nothing serious.”
Maresca added that Semenyo’s injury might be more serious.
Perfect seven
Maresca became the first manager to win his first seven Premier League games in charge of a team.
“I didn't expect to win seven out of seven," said Maresca, who replaced Pep Guardiola in the offseason, "but we are working well, working good.”
Chelsea (in 2005) and Liverpool (in 2019) are the other teams to win at least their first seven games of a Premier League season — and they both went on to win the title.
Liverpool rallies to beat Brentford but gets more injuries
Liverpool came from behind to win 2-1 at nine-man Brentford but lost two more players to injury in a busy stretch of fixtures.
Trailing to Keane Lewis-Potter's 44th-minute header, Liverpool found itself with a man advantage when Brentford midfielder Yehor Yarmoliuk was shown a red card in first-half stoppage time for aiming a head-butt at Jeremy Jacquet.
Liverpool took advantage, with Victor Munoz and Alexander Isak scoring after the break to consign Brentford to its first league defeat this season.
Vitaly Janelt became the second Brentford player sent off after getting a second yellow card in second-half stoppage time.
Isak has just returned from an injury sustained on international duty with Sweden but two players are back on the treatment table, with Dominik Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong — a halftime substitute — forced off with injuries.
Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola said Szoboszlai’s problem was the reoccurrence of the hamstring injury he got while playing for Hungary in the recent international break.
Martinez head injury in Chelsea win
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.
Neto slotted home the opening goal 44 seconds after the resumption and then added the second in the 90th minute after pouncing on the loose ball following a blocked free kick.
Chelsea handed Everton a first loss of the season after seven rounds, keeping a first clean sheet in nine months in the process.
Martinez was conscious and in the hospital, Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso said, after receiving 10 minutes of treatment on the field and then being carried off on a stretcher following a head-on-head collision with Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite at a free kick.
Manzambi thriving for Villa
Johan Manzambi could easily have joined Newcastle in the offseason. On Saturday, he grabbed the winner against the team for Aston Villa.
The 21-year-old Switzerland midfielder scored for the third time in four games to seal Villa’s 1-0 victory at St. James’ Park.
It would have been a painful sight for Newcastle, which reached an agreement with Freiburg to sign Manzambi after his impressive World Cup performances but not with the player himself. Now he’s thriving for Villa.
Fulham win eases pressure on Arbeloa Fulham eased the pressure on manager Alvaro Arbeloa by beating Hull 1-0 for its first league win of the season.
Alex Iwobi scored the goal in the 33rd minute, helping Fulham climb off the bottom of the table — much to the relief of Arbeloa, the former Real Madrid coach who arrived in the offseason.
