LONDON — Manchester City captain Ruben Dias said on Tuesday “people don’t love us winning and we love to win”, as he robustly defended his club’s raucous celebrations after beating Liverpool, despite being found guilty of a catalogue of Premier League financial rules breaches.
City were jeered throughout by Liverpool fans during a 3-0 win at Anfield last weekend that left them top of the English Premier League table, three points clear of reigning champions Arsenal, with six wins from six matches.
It was City’s first game since being found guilty of more than 100 charges relating to breaches of the English top-flight’s financial fair-play rules.
City have appealed the verdict, with every match featuring the team now played under a huge cloud of uncertainty.
Enzo Maresca’s men will be back in European action on Wednesday when they are at home to holders Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League.
“I really feel like I speak for the whole group, we trust the club,” insisted Dias, despite City being found guilty of 34 charges of failing to cooperate with the league’s investigation.
The Portugal defender added according to AFP: “If there’s more or less noise or whatever the reason the noise is, at the end of the day it’s all the same, same as before, because people don’t love us winning and we love to win.”
City faced criticism for the exuberant way they celebrated victory over 10-man Liverpool.
But City manager Enzo Maresca said: “Criticised for what? We won 3-0 at Anfield. What do you want us to do? Even if it was 1-0, it would be exactly the same.
“We work every day to win games. It’s the only thing that we can think about and be focused (on).”
Dias backed Maresca by saying: “To win at Anfield in whatever circumstance, whether it’s earlier in the season or later in the season, we will enjoy it just as much.
“We will celebrate however it feels in the moment and it will obviously be a show of how much it means to us.”
