‘What do you want us to do?’ – Maresca defends Man City’s Anfield celebrations

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Enzo Maresca is puzzled as to what people expect from his Manchester City players after they received criticism for their celebrations at Anfield.

City beat 10-man Liverpool 3-0 on Sunday, with their players and fans celebrating jubilantly.

The victory came in the wake of City having been found guilty of breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018. 

City have started a league season with six straight wins for the second time since 2020-21. However, critics have directed their ire at Maresca’s squad, claiming the celebrations were over the top, and even tasteless, but the former Chelsea boss bit back.

“Criticised for what? We won 0-3 at Anfield, what do you want us to do?” the Italian asked reporters in his pre-match press conference ahead of City’s Champions League meeting with Paris Saint-Germain.

“And even if it was 0-1 it would be exactly the same. We work every day to win games.

“We can be focused. The rest is things from outside we need to deal with. We were so, so happy inside the pitch and you cannot imagine inside the changing room.

“After we were very happy on the pitch, sharing time with our fans. Probably it has been tougher for our fans than for the players or for me.

“It is more complicated because if I was an Arsenal fan or Manchester United fan and you are a City fan, I can say ‘my friend, you are a cheat’ or these kinds of things. So probably, it has been more tough for them.

“But again, we were happy at the end of the game. Inside the changing room, we were very happy, celebrating because we know how difficult it is Anfield away, so that is why we were very happy.”

An away day to remember! https://t.co/76dHmNlv4y

— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 12, 2026

And Ruben Dias said it was a case of shutting out the noise.

“Personally and I really feel like I speak for the whole group, we trust the club,” Dias said.

“We’re very calm and were very focused on enjoying football. We know the team we’ve got, we want to make the most out of it, we want to win, and that’s the only thing in our mind.

“If there’s more or less noise or whatever the reason the noise is, at the end of the day it’s all the same, same as before, because people don’t love us winning and we love to win.

“I very much stand by the manager’s words as well. To win at Anfield in whatever circumstance, whether it’s earlier in the season or later in the season, we will enjoy it just as much.

“We will celebrate however it feels in the moment and it will obviously be a show of how much it means to us.”

City have lodged an appeal against the guilty verdict.

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