Five wins from five, three points clear at the top, and a guilty verdict on 114 charges hanging off them like a wet coat. That's how Manchester City turn up at Anfield on Sunday. It's their first game since the independent commission's findings, and their appeal only went in on Thursday night.
Liverpool are sixth, unbeaten, on nine points, with three league clean sheets on the spin under Andoni Iraola. Six behind. Kick-off is 4.30pm UK time. The Liverpool rooms didn't wait for the international break to finish. Most of them say they want to talk about the football. Hardly any of them manage it for long.
"Pretend we're down the pub"
TheKopTV went straight for the obvious move and sat a Man City fan in the chair. Boovie gets grilled from the off. "Pretend we're down the pub. Pretend that we're not on camera. What do you feel about the owners right now?"
He gives more than you'd expect. He calls it "a damning moment for the club" and admits no fan wants their club spoken about in those terms. But he won't pass a full verdict until the appeal is done, and he hits back that the rules exist "to uphold the success and the size of old big football clubs that were successful in the 1970s". The host's reply is the one every rival fan has been shouting for a fortnight: if everyone else stuck to the rules, why couldn't City?
Then it turns into a proper preview. Boovie rates Iraola's side, says the back line looks far better and the clean sheets are real, but he still thinks the left wing is a problem, and the room gets onto Barcola's zero goals and zero assists in five. His prediction is City 3-0, because City are top. The Liverpool side of the table wants "a little controlled 2-nil. Early dagger, late dagger." The parting shot is pure pub: come back to Anfield next season, "because this might be your last trip".
"Sunday's about three points"
AnfieldIndex spend the first stretch of their preview on the appeal. They call it a kitchen-sink job designed to make the case feel endless, and they chew over academic chatter that Abu Dhabi might eventually cut their losses and walk. Then one of the panel tells everyone to park the off-field stuff and look at the table.
Win, and Liverpool are within three of City. Lose, and it starts to look like a top-four scrap. Their verdict is blunt: "Sunday's about three points. Simple as that."
The worry list is where this one earns its keep. Jeremy Jacquet sat on the bench for France carrying a minor knock. Cody Gakpo and Alexander Isak are waiting on Iraola's presser. Alexis Mac Allister is lined up for three games in six days with Argentina. Erling Haaland's early exit for Norway? Forget it. "Haaland is going to play on Sunday. It was a planned substitution." Tired legs everywhere, so the panel want Anfield to be "an equalising factor". That fits the reporting: City boss Enzo Maresca is due to address his squad on Thursday, and the Liverpool line-up guides are all hedging on Isak, Gakpo and Jacquet.
20 is greater than 114
AllRedShow comes with a five-point plan for the stands, and point one is a sum. Signs all round Anfield reading "20 > 114". "It's not math. It's football." Twenty titles beat 114 charges. Next up: make Anfield "the most hostile place City visit all season", with a quick "be safe, be respectful" tacked on. And the players should ignore the away end entirely, run the full length of the pitch if they have to, and celebrate with the Kop.
The best bit is the admission halfway through. "I'm sick of hearing about the 114, to be honest." The actual answer is the oldest one in football: "The absolute best way to respond to the 114 is just to win and win big at Anfield."
"A two-horse race"
LiverpoolJapan is the one who's already written City off. "Manchester City, those cheats, back at Anfield." He reckons City are "probably removed from title equation, which means it's a straight up two-horse race between Liverpool FC and Arsenal."
Bold, given City are top and the table hasn't been touched. No sanction has been set, and City's appeal is now with a fresh three-person board. Still, the football half is warm and specific. He credits Iraola with getting Liverpool playing vertically, through the lines. He has Jacquet's niggle down as minor and hopes some TLC sorts it. And he wants the big-money winger to finally pay up in the biggest game yet: Barcola "to smash Man City for a double".
Did the break wreck the plan?
Liverpool 12th Man went long, well over an hour and a half live. The question on the thumbnail is the one nagging every Liverpool room. Klopp has got Florian Wirtz going again with Germany, but has the international break put Liverpool's City plan in danger? There are no captions on the stream, so we won't put words in anyone's mouth. If you want the full worry session, this is the one to put on.
Title six-pointer or morality play?
That's the split in the pile. One half wants Sunday to be a referendum on City: the banners, the "20 > 114", "those cheats", the last-trip-to-Anfield jokes. The other half, led by AnfieldIndex, keeps pointing at the table and saying it's only ever been three points.
Here's the bit neither side can get round. Nothing that happens at Anfield changes the appeal. The table is what it can change. City win and they're nine clear of Liverpool. Liverpool win and the gap is three. And if Anfield turns it into a morality play and still loses, City walk out top with Boovie's 3-0 looking a lot less daft than it sounded in the chair.