Liverpool takes on Man City in strange circumstances this weekend, with the fixture schedule pitting the team with arguably the biggest grievance against the guilty perpetrator
Andoni Iraola on the touchline at Man City.
Andoni Iraola on the touchline at Man City.(Image: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
In dropping the bombshell that Manchester City was guilty of the vast majority of the 115 charges that had been leveled at it by the Premier League during the international break, the English top flight certainly livened things up.
And with Enzo Maresca's side scheduled to take on Liverpool next, there could almost be no more fitting opponent: Jurgen Klopp's team, who came so close to winning many more league titles when competing against the side now found to have been playing by different rules, can arguably feel more aggrieved than anyone.
Liverpool is far from the only party to have been impacted by Manchester City's exaggerated spending power, but its fans will be the first to make their feelings known in the flesh.
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Of course, Manchester City has appealed the verdict. It also maintains its innocence and claims to have "irrefutable" evidence to disprove the very thing the proceedings have determined.
But the nature of the verdict — its strong wording and in places remarkable accusations — makes clear the position that has been reached. The punishment, should an appeal not be successful, will surely be severe.
It is no exaggeration to describe the Manchester City case as the biggest story that has ever hit the Premier League. It is bigger even than the European Super League, in which Liverpool was briefly involved.
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Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola
Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola(Image: Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
And, as a result, there is likely to be a split between the 'before' and the 'after'. What came prior, for the last two decades or so, will be tainted; what comes next is yet to be decided.
As Jamie Carragher has spoken about this week, though, it is very hard to make the case for Manchester City's players finding things easy moving forward.
Though Elliot Anderson, Erling Haaland and co clearly had nothing to do with the charges, and in many cases weren't even at the club during the period of wrongdoing, they will feel the ramifications.
There is an argument that they might even be more impacted by the outcome than many of those who were involved, given that football is predominantly about what happens on the field.
At Anfield, Manchester City can expect an even more ferocious welcome than before, and Maresca's men — unfairly or otherwise — will have to face something similar at every away ground this season and beyond.
Coming up against Manchester City already made it a big game, but there is now an extra motivation for the home crowd to get on the backs of those in Sky Blue — even if they had nothing to do with the cheating.
Less quantifiable will be the reaction of the players inside the Etihad side's locker room, over which there is a huge question mark. With so much uncertainty about the eventual punishment, there could easily be a lack of edge.
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After all, why would you fight for that extra one per cent if an automatic relegation or a huge points deduction could be coming further down the line?
Even if any punishment is delayed until after this season, winning the title — or any other major silverware — would come with a major caveat.
At best, those in the Manchester City changing room must feel uneasy, even if it could eventually be transformed into a backs-against-the-wall, us-against-the-world mentality.
For any of the teams who have already faced Manchester City this season — Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Coventry, Manchester United and Sunderland — they are at the disadvantage of the verdict emerging after that point.
Exactly what the impact of it will be remains to be seen, but it is a different Manchester City post-verdict than what came before, and Liverpool will be the first to experience it.