Holding a microphone in one hand and a giant inflatable banana in the other, Manchester City star Phil Foden conducted a series of post-match interviews with a big smile on his face.
These are strange times for Foden and his City teammates, who are in the eye of a storm with their club having been found guilty of large-scale financial misconduct in one of the biggest scandals in English soccer history.
City’s fans are responding to a grave situation with defiance and even some humor — and the blow-up fruit is a symbol of it all.
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A craze from the 1980s: Seeing the Etihad Stadium awash with fans waving around inflatable bananas for Saturday’s 3-2 win over Ipswich in the Premier League revived memories of a craze that began in the late 1980s — well before City was funded by Abu Dhabi wealth and at a time when its underperforming team was bobbing between the top two divisions of the English game and playing at its former home of Maine Road.
City had a striker called Imre Varadi who was a fans’ favorite and, somehow, got the affectionate nickname “Imre Banana” from supporters. That is believed to be the reason why fans started turning up for City games with large, inflatable bananas to lighten the mood amid tough times, starting in the 1987-88 season when City was back in the second tier after relegation.
That the bananas have returned en masse around 40 years later is no coincidence, with City back in worrying times — its appeal withstanding — and its fans retreating to gallows humor in the stands.
“I always had one of these when I was in the stadium,” Foden, a boyhood City fan, said as he looked at the inflatable banana he was cradling during interviews after scoring against Ipswich.
Maresca gets it: City manager Enzo Maresca was unaware of the club’s history with the inflatable bananas and only saw them for the first time at the 3-0 win at Liverpool last week, which was City’s first game since the explosive verdict of the independent commission was published.
Despite the critical situation, he saw the funny side of it and urged fans to bring them to the Ipswich game, too.
“I think it creates a nice environment for the fans,” Maresca said, “and for everyone that is in the stadium.”
Maresca said his four kids have joined the craze and asked him if they could bring the bananas to the Ipswich match.
Long-distance goal: While the biggest Premier League news in Manchester City over the weekend was in the stands and off the pitch, Brighton’s Diego Gomez was making headlines on the field for one jaw-dropping play.
Evoking memories of David Beckham’s famous goal from the halfway line for Man United 30 years ago, Gomez boldly launched a shot from just inside Crystal Palace’s half and the ball flew over stranded Palace goalkeeper Walter Benitez into the net for an instant goal-of-the-season contender in England’s top division.
It was the second of three goals in the opening 10 minutes for Brighton, which swept to a 5-0 win over Palace and another statement victory in a campaign that has already seen the south-coast team overwhelm Arsenal 3-0.
As well as an own-goal, Brighton also had goals from Yasin Ayari, Charalampos Kostoulas and Jack Hinshelwood at Amex Stadium and moved up to third place with the win.
Only three teams — Arsenal (2009-10), Man United (2011-12) and Manchester City (2019-20) — in Premier League history have scored more after seven matches than Brighton’s 23 goals, according to stat supplier Opta.
It was the worst possible result for Palace manager Pierre Sage, who was under pressure even before a heavy loss to his club’s biggest rival.
The Frenchman apologized to fans and said he didn’t know if he’d be given time to turn things around after two wins in seven matches.
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