"Very happy" Enzo Maresca hits back at critics for Man City celebrations at Anfield after win over Liverpool

Enzo Maresca has hit back at critics for the way Manchester City celebrated their 3-0 Premier League victory against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

The Citizens delivered a confident and professional performance in front of a chorus of boos to run out as convincing winners against the Reds in their first match since they were found guilty of breaching Premier League financial regulations.

City have been accused of using "sham" contracts and bogus deals to disguise more than £830m in secret funding and artificially inflate revenues between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

The eight-time Premier League champions strongly deny those accusations and have since lodged an appeal in an attempt to clear their name.

Man City remain top of the table with a perfect record from six games, but many have since questioned what such a statement win at Liverpool actually means for a club potentially in danger of a wide range of sanctions should their guilty verdict be upheld.

A significant points deduction - one that could even lead to relegation - has been suggested as a possible punishments for Man City, which would see them dragged away from title contention.

At a time of uncertainty, Man City were criticised by many fans, pundits and journalists for the way their players, and particularly their travelling supporters, celebrated their win over Liverpool.

Many City fans showed their support for chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, who is leading his club's appeal, with a banner that read: 'In Khaldoon We Trust - We've Won It All’, while others took the opportunity to sing chants mocking their own "cheater" label to rile up the home crowd.

Maresca defends Man City celebrations after Liverpool win

However, Maresca has come out to defend those jubilant scenes at full time and has questioned why City have received so much criticism after a victory.

Addressing this matter ahead of their Champions League clash with PSG on Wednesday, Maresca told reporters: "Criticised for what? We won 0-3 at Anfield! What do you want us to do? And even if it was 0-1, it would be exactly the same.

"I'm here today, and the players are here today, to win tomorrow's game, and we work every day to win games. It's the only thing, again, that we can think and be focussed.

"The rest? It's just things from outside that we need to deal with, but we were so, so, so happy inside the pitch, and you cannot imagine inside the changing room!"

‘Man City fans brought their passion, their voice… we need that again’

Maresca added: "We were very, very happy inside the pitch, sharing time with our fans.

"Probably it has been more tough for our fans than for the players or for me. Probably because it's more complicated because if I am an Arsenal fan or a [Man] United fan, and you are a Man City fan, I can tell you, 'Hey my friend, you cheat', or these kind 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 the three points because we know how difficult it is at Anfield - that's why we were very happy!"

Maresca has also sent a clear message to the Man City supporters, adding "First of all, Anfield was unbelievable. Even if the environment was the environment that we know, but since the beginning of the game, our fans they were there.

"[Out fans] brought their passion, their voice. Hopefully they can do the same tomorrow night (against PSG) because we need that, and not only tomorrow night, on Saturday we have Ipswich at home. That is again the Premier League, that we need to continue our path.

"Excited for tomorrow night, I was here for the Treble season and I know the Champions League nights, they were special and hopefully tomorrow night can be special too."

Man City will endeavour to make it nine wins out of nine across all competitions under Maresca when they welcome defending Champions League winners PSG to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.