Maresca says Manchester City players can handle hostile away crowds
After City’s first Premier League defeat of the season at Aston Villa, Enzo Maresca said his players remained focused despite chants about the club’s financial-rules verdict.
BBC Sport reported on 27 October that Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca said his players were staying focused despite hostile away crowds. City had suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season at Aston Villa on 24 October, where supporters chanted about the club’s financial-rules verdict while an appeal remained pending.
Maresca told BBC Sport that City’s performances away to Liverpool and Villa showed the players could shut out the noise. ‘They play the game, they are focused on the game and are doing the right things,’ he said. He added that the team concentrated on what it could control on the pitch, even at grounds where supporters were hostile.
What City players said about the away chants
Before the Villa match, midfielder Elliot Anderson was asked by TNT Sports whether City would face a hostile crowd. ‘Yes, probably,’ he replied, according to BBC Sport. ‘Everywhere we go we get it.’ Villa was City’s second away fixture since the independent commission’s decision on the club’s financial-rules breaches, the BBC reported.
Defender Marc Guehi had also acknowledged the risk of distraction. He said it could be ‘very easy to listen to the noise’ and be affected by events around the club, BBC Sport reported, while saying the squad was concentrating on football. Anderson’s and Guehi’s comments show that players have noticed the reaction, even as Maresca says they remain focused during matches.
Why the financial-rules verdict follows City
Villa supporters’ chants included the word ‘cheating’, BBC Sport reported. ESPN has separately described City as having been found guilty of financial-rule violations. City have appealed the independent commission’s decision and are awaiting the outcome and any sanctions, according to the BBC. The club’s supporters have answered rival fans with self-deprecating chants of their own, including ‘we know what we are’. The appeal’s outcome matters beyond the atmosphere at away games because the BBC says sanctions are still pending.
City next have two home matches against Brighton, in the Carabao Cup and Premier League, before visiting RB Leipzig in the Champions League and Nottingham Forest in the league on 7 November, BBC Sport reported. Forest were docked four points in 2024 for breaching Premier League financial rules. That visit will take City to a ground whose home supporters have experienced a financial-rules sanction against their own club.
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Sources and context
- Man City: Can players block out 'noise' of away supporters?BBC Sport
- Ranked: Every Premier League team's money-per-points (after Man City cheated)ESPN.com
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.