Maresca Says City Ignore the Chorus

Enzo Maresca has insisted Manchester City’s players can shut out the abuse that has followed them on the road since the club’s financial case sharpened into chants.

City’s first Premier League defeat of the season came at Aston Villa, where home supporters turned the atmosphere into part of the contest. The taunts referenced the club’s financial-rule case and BBC Sport reported that midfielder Elliot Anderson, asked before the match whether he expected hostility, answered plainly: “Everywhere we go we get it.”

That matters because an away season can tilt on concentration rather than tactics alone. A team under scrutiny does not only have to move the ball well; it has to live with every loose touch being greeted like evidence. Maresca’s line was that City have managed that part of the job.

“We played Liverpool away, Villa away, and the players showed that they don’t care about noise,” Maresca told BBC Sport. “They play the game, they are focused on the game and are doing the right things.”

He added that the squad’s focus remains on “what they can control” on the pitch. That is manager-speak, certainly, but it also describes the only viable method left to a side that cannot argue with away ends for 90 minutes and still expects to win.

The difficulty is that pressure is easier to dismiss in a quote than in a mistake. Defender Marc Guehi, according to the BBC report, gave away the ball for Villa’s opening goal, was booked for bringing down Nicolas Jackson and was substituted at half-time. Maresca publicly backed him anyway, saying he was “completely happy” with the defender and calling him a “top guy”.

That defence of a player is part of the same story. If City are to navigate the rest of the campaign without the noise seeping into their football, the manager cannot let every error be interpreted as psychological damage. He has to treat mistakes as football mistakes, not symptoms.

The away grounds are unlikely to soften. BBC Sport noted that City’s trip to Nottingham Forest is set for 7 November, and Forest supporters have their own history with Premier League sanctions after a four-point deduction in 2024 for financial-rule breaches. Sympathy is not a tactical resource City should expect to find there.

For now, Maresca is arguing that the evidence lies in performance rather than atmosphere: Liverpool away, Villa away, and a squad still trying to play through the racket rather than answer it.