Man City thrashing Liverpool was football at its most dystopian

Liverpool 0-3 Man City(Gravenberch red card 62' 65', Doku 68', Cherki 78') ANFIELD - It was like a dystopian episode of Black Mirror. All those eyes watching in hundreds of countries around the world.

For a game that was effectively meaningless. Until Manchester City are sanctioned, that is the dark reality of Premier League football.

Every success, every last-minute winner, every monumental upset could be deemed irrelevant in a few months if City are relegated, demoted or wiped from existence, as the most vociferous naysayers insist must happen as a result of their systemic breaching of the financial rules. At Anfield on Sunday, we got our first taste of this new existence.

The travelling supporters waved inflatable bananas to laugh in the face of their impending doom. They purchased "Cheats" merchandise and displayed it with gusto in the Merseyside sunshine.

The team bus came in via a secret entrance. Nobody wins in all of this.

We can only hope all of the exhibition matches between now and the end of the season are as breathless as Sunday's fraught encounter. City's first opponents since the guilty verdict could only have been Liverpool.

The Premier League's socialist enclave, where winning the right way is as important as the victories themselves. The club who feel most wronged, whose favourite German's legacy could have been dramatically different had it not been for City's financial doping.

Supporters lined Anfield Road in anticipation of being the first supporters in the angry land to voice their vitriol towards a busload of players, coaches and support staff, all of whom are completely innocent. "What's the story, tainted glory", read one banner.

Others demanded more medals for Jurgen Klopp and his perennial runners-up to City. Their message failed to get across, however, as the coach came from the opposite way and entered under the stadium.