Erling Haaland and Manchester City's other star players have watched from a distance as the club dealt with the fallout from being found guilty of large-scale financial wrongdoing in the biggest scandal in Premier League history.
Now they have to face the music.
City's first game back after an international window dominated by the explosive verdict in its long-running case with the Premier League comes on Sunday.
And it just had to be at Anfield.
A trip to Liverpool has long been considered the toughest, most fearsome away game of the season by City. It just got even tougher, with Haaland, Rayan Cherki and the rest likely entering a cauldron of hate and anger this weekend.
Liverpool might consider itself the team which suffered most from the slew of financial misdemeanors carried out by City, according to the findings of an independent investigatory panel, between 2009-18 — the period when City's Abu Dhabi ownership was assembling a squad that would later dominate English soccer. Those findings are the subject of an appeal by City, which continues to assert its innocence.
Under former coach Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool won the Premier League in 2020 but the team also finished second to Pep Guardiola's City by one point in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons following memorable title races that raised the bar in terms of points earned and the standard of football played.
What helped City to reach that level was nearly a decade of rule-breaking, the independent panel has found.
So, expect Liverpool fans to be seething inside and outside of Anfield. They'll believe they are owed some titles.
Aside from Phil Foden, who is suspended for the match, no current member of City's squad even played for the club from 2009-18. Enzo Maresca took over as City manager only in June.
Still, they will be the ones bearing the brunt of the widespread discontent from fan bases up and down the country in the coming months.
What will be intriguing is who from City's ownership or board attends the Liverpool game. How much will the matter weigh on the players under the most intense pressure? And what will be the reaction of City's match-going supporters, with the future of their club so uncertain — the potential sanctions include a huge points deduction, even expulsion from the Premier League — and the violations of its ownership clear for all to see in the commission's verdict?
City leads the league on a maximum 15 points from five games — all of which were played when the club was being accused of those financial breaches.
Now the guilty verdict has arrived, it's time to see the impact on the team — and the reaction of its rivals.
The first game back after an extended three-week break for internationals is Arsenal, the defending champion, at home to Leeds on Saturday lunchtime.
Manchester United hosts Tottenham — in last place on two points — in one of five other games on Saturday.
The international window was marked by a raft of injuries to high-profile Premier League players. Now to see how serious they are.
Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo returned to Liverpool for assessment of injuries picked up playing for Sweden and the Netherlands, respectively, and are currently doubts for the Liverpool-City game. So might be Haaland, who asked to be substituted midway through the second half of Norway's final Nations League game, but that might have been because of fatigue.
Kai Havertz, who has been the starting striker for Arsenal this season, was injured in the first of four games played by Germany — though that was two weeks ago now.
Certain to be missing is Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott, who is out for up to eight weeks with a thigh injury sustained on England duty. Scott is a key player in a Bournemouth team without a win so far and heading into its first ever European campaign next week.
Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey also is facing a spell on the sidelines after sustaining a hamstring injury playing for the Netherlands.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
A satirical billboard aimed at Manchester City is seen in Manchester, England, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Norway's Erling Haaland claps his hands during warmup before the Nations League soccer match between Portugal and Norway in Porto, Portugal, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis Vieira)
Isaias surged toward the U.S. Gulf Coast on Thursday as the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, prompting mandatory evacuations and school closures in parts of Florida.
Isaias was forecast to intensify rapidly and bring strong winds and a life-threatening storm surge to the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and southern Mississippi when it makes landfall on the northern Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday. Heavy rain with the risk of flooding was possible into the weekend as far inland as the Tennessee Valley.
The hurricane had maximum sustained winds around 75 mph (121 kph) and was moving east-northeast at 9 mph (15 kph) early Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. It was centered about 445 miles (715 kilometers) south-southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Coastal communities moved quickly to prepare. Some Gulf oil wells paused production, and at least four Florida school districts canceled classes for later in the week while Okaloosa County announced mandatory evacuations for some coastal areas. Governors in Florida and Alabama declared a state of emergency for dozens of counties.
The National Weather Service told communities from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to Gulf County, Florida, to prepare for the possibility of “long-duration power outages.”
Isaias developed more than four months into the Atlantic hurricane season and was short by one day of tying a 121-year-old record for the area’s latest-forming hurricane. According to the National Weather Service, the record dates to 1905, when the year’s first Atlantic hurricane formed on Oct. 8.
The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually quiet this year because of a strong El Niño, which disrupts storm formation over that ocean. Storm activity has been above average in the Pacific, where Tropical Storm Simon formed Wednesday off Mexico.
Isaias is expected to strike a swath of coastline that’s familiar with major hurricanes.
One of the 20th century’s worst storms, Hurricane Camille, killed more than 250 people after hitting land near Waveland, Mississippi, in 1969. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 razed neighborhoods in Mississippi, flooded New Orleans and killed nearly 1,400 people. And Hurricane Michael leveled homes and buildings near Panama City, Florida, in 2018.
Ahead of the storm, oil and gas producers shut down a significant share of offshore production in the Gulf, which accounts for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S.
As of Wednesday about 25% of the oil production in the region was temporarily halted, taking about 511,000 barrels a day off the market, according to the Marine Minerals Administration. It said eight of the Gulf's 371 manned oil platforms were evacuated.
With oil prices already high, the production cuts are steep enough to affect markets, though other Gulf hurricanes have caused larger disruptions, said Jim Burkhard, global head of crude oil market research for S&P Global Energy. More concerning, he said, is whether Isaias strikes as a powerful storm near refineries.
As it moves inland, Isaias might also disrupt Saturday’s college football showdown between rivals Georgia and Alabama, a game President Donald Trump has planned to attend.
In Alabama, the cities of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach issued a statement encouraging people in low-lying areas to voluntarily evacuate.
Gulf Shores resident Maranie Adams gathered water and other supplies as her family moved belongings, including a hot tub motor, to higher ground. Her family planned to ride out the storm at home, roughly a half-mile from shore, sheltering indoors alongside their flock of chickens.
“We’re having to get crates to bring them into the house so they don’t blow away,” Adams said. “It’s going to be noisy.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency for 40 counties, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared one for 25 counties in the Panhandle and Big Bend regions. The state also planned to deploy a Miami-based urban search and rescue task force.
In Pensacola, electric utilities were pre-positioning crews to quickly repair any power outages. City officials provided sand for residents to fill sandbags to protect their homes against flooding. And Mayor D.C. Reeves urged people to check on older adult neighbors and others who might need help.
“Obviously no need to panic at this point,” Reeves told a news conference. “This is really about preparation.”
Rico reported from Atlanta, Collins from Hartford, Connecticut, and Golden from Seattle. Associated Press journalists Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.
This GOES-19 GeoColor satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and taken at 4:57 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, shows Tropical Storm Simon, bottom center, in the Pacific Ocean, off the southwestern coast of Mexico, and Tropical Storm Isaias, upper right, east of Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Isaias off the eastern coast of Mexico on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)
