Five wins from five, Anfield up next, and a guilty verdict hanging over the Etihad like a storm cloud. But Enzo Maresca? He's not blinking.

In one of the most surreal press conferences the Premier League has seen in years, Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca has come out swinging.

According to cbinews.tv, the Italian has insisted City's glittering haul of titles are "absolutely not" tainted - despite an independent commission finding the club guilty of the majority of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League.

And he was, by all accounts, remarkably relaxed about it.

What Maresca actually said?

Speaking to cbinews.tv sources at Friday's news conference, Maresca was unequivocal:

"The reason I joined this club is that I completely trust, 100%, the owner, the CEO, the sporting director, all the organisation. So I don't have doubt about that."

On the suggestion that every trophy - from that Aguerooooo moment in 2012 to the Treble - is now tarnished?

"Absolutely not. I know exactly the effort that the club put in to achieve them."

He added: "I spoke with the club for sure. We all trust, and probably the right moment to speak about that is when we are going to win this appeal."

For the players, his message is simple: tune out the noise.

"The feeling is fantastic among his players and they are not affected by the noise," he had said in an in-house interview on Thursday. On Friday he doubled down: "For me, the players - we can control just the pitch side, the football side. So we are focused on that."

He even thanked one journalist for asking a non-verdict question - confirming Erling Haaland is "ready" to face Liverpool after his Norway exertions in Marbella.

And would he still have taken the job if he'd known this was coming? "100%," he said. The charges, he claims, weren't even discussed when he interviewed in the summer.

A bit of background - this has been a long time coming

Let's be honest, this 115 charges saga has been rumbling since February 2023. The period in question, 2009-2018, is basically the Abu Dhabi era's foundation years.

That's the era where City went from mid-table battlers to a powerhouse: 3 Premier League titles (2011-12, 2013-14, 2017-18), 3 League Cups and an FA Cup. It laid the financial and sporting groundwork for the four-in-a-row dominance under Guardiola from 2020-2024.

For context, this isn't the first financial scrap. Back in 2020, City had a two-year Champions League ban from UEFA overturned by CAS. They've always denied wrongdoing. This Premier League verdict, though, is domestic, unprecedented in scale, and potentially far more consequential.

It's easy to get lost in the legalese - £830m, sham sponsorships, misleading accounts. But think about Maresca for a second.

He's won his first five Premier League games as City boss. On Sunday at Anfield he could become just the fourth manager ever to win his first six games of a spell at a club in the competition. It's a dream start.

Now, instead of talking tactics against Liverpool, he's fielding questions about accountancy from 2013. And yet, he looked relaxed. He said he became a manager "for this type of game."

There was a nice touch from his old captain too. Bayern Munich manager and City legend Vincent Kompany - 11 years at the Etihad, lest we forget - said earlier on Friday: "I played 11 years for the club and I've loved all the years I've played for the club. Everything we've achieved and done on the pitch I'm really proud of. Everything else, as a player you're not a part of that."

That sums up the dressing room divide perfectly: what happened on the pitch feels real to those who lived it.

Why it matters?

So why should you care beyond the rivalry banter?

Because this is the Premier League's biggest integrity test ever. If City's appeal fails, the sanctions could range from a massive points deduction and huge fine to, in the most extreme scenario discussed by legal experts, relegation or even stripping of titles - though the latter has never happened in English football and would face enormous legal pushback.

If they win the appeal, as Maresca is so confident they will, it raises huge questions about the Premier League's financial rulebook and its ability to regulate its own clubs.

For fans of other clubs, especially those who lived through City pipping Liverpool in 2013-14 and 2018-19 by a single point, the word "tainted" will keep coming up. For City fans, it's a defence of a decade of memories they believe were earned on grass, not in a spreadsheet.

What happens next?

1. The Appeal: City have lodged it. Expect a months-long process, likely stretching well into 2026. No points deduction or punishment is enforced until that process is complete.

2. Sunday, Anfield: Football finally takes centre stage. Liverpool vs Manchester City. Maresca knows "the environment at Anfield" will be "worse because of the situation." Can his side block it out?

3. The Precedent: Whatever happens, this case will rewrite how the Premier League polices its finances. Everton and Nottingham Forest have already had points deductions for PSR breaches. This is on a completely different scale.

One thing's for sure - this story is nowhere near finished.

As reported by cbinews.tv.

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