R\u00faben Dias has said Manchester City players wanted to confront the Premier League\u2019s guilty verdict against the club as soon as they returned from the international break.<\/p>\n
With City preparing to welcome Paris Saint-Germain to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, their first home fixture since the verdict emerged, the defender explained that the squad felt it was important to get together quickly. Pep Guardiola will be there in support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the news came out, we felt we should have a conversation as soon as we got back,\u201d Dias said. He added that the aim was to make sure everyone was aligned and settled. \u201cWe moved forward from there. It happened at a time when we weren\u2019t together, but we quickly talked to each other, calmed down and moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wider picture remains unresolved. City continue to deny wrongdoing and maintain that they are fighting what they view as an injustice based on one \u201cfalse accusation,\u201d while the football calendar keeps moving. The appeal verdict is due before the end of January, although that may not be the end of the process.<\/p>\n
For Dias and his teammates, the demands of playing on create an awkward backdrop. The longer the situation remains open, the harder it becomes to separate the football from the case itself, and the Premier League\u2019s position is inevitably under scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Supporters have responded with defiance. At Anfield, a banner in the away end read, \u201cIn Khaldoon [Al Mubarak] we trust,\u201d while chants in support of Sheikh Mansour were also heard. A familiar Hull City chant was adapted in the second half as well.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Sky Sports after City\u2019s win over Liverpool, Gary Neville said it was \u201cdifficult\u201d to separate the team\u2019s on-field quality from the verdict and the club\u2019s conduct. He also described the situation by saying, \u201cThis is really bad for the Premier League .\u201d<\/p>\n
Dias insisted the squad can only continue focusing on what they can control. \u201cWe are very good at focusing on our work and being happy whenever we come to work. Our minds are only on that. These are the things we can control and that we have always enjoyed doing so much,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have complete confidence in the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was also reaction to the celebrations after the Liverpool match. \u201cWe won 3\u20130 at Anfield, what do you want us to do?\u201d manager Enzo Maresca said. \u201cWe work every day to win games. It\u2019s the only thing we can be focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dias says City quickly addressed the verdict as focus shifts to PSG at the Etihad on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,172],"tags":[1836,1047],"class_list":["post-21752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}