Who’s singing now? Maresca wants Man City to drown out noise

LIVERPOOL, Oct 11 : Manchester City have spent the last two weeks surrounded by a lot of noise. On Sunday at Anfield, City boss Enzo Maresca told his players the best way to drown it out was by making even more of their own.

City did just that with a defiant 3-0 victory over Liverpool that preserved their perfect Premier League start for a three-point lead atop the table.

In their first game since an independent commission found the club guilty of 114 breaches of the league's financial rules, City were met by deafening boos and angry chants but left Anfield with their own supporters providing the soundtrack.

It was exactly the response Maresca had demanded from his players.

"We need to learn how to deal with the outside noise because of the situation, and the noise will be always there," Maresca said. "But at the same time, we need to try to make our noise, and that is win games, like we have done today, because at the end of the game, our fans, they were singing, so the noise was from us, not from Liverpool."

The Italian knows the hostility is unlikely to disappear, with Sunday's reception at Anfield a sign of what awaits City on their travels as they await the outcome of their appeal against the financial-rule verdict.

"I think (at) all the away games there's going to be noise," said Maresca, who wrapped his coaching staff in a huge hug at the final whistle before he and the players made a beeline for the away fans section to celebrate.

"That's why I'm saying that we need to learn how to deal with noise, but at the same time we need to make our noise. Our noise is: who is singing at the end? This has to be our target in this moment."

City's response on the pitch matched one of defiance off it. The club's chief executive