That drew the delight of the home crowd and the thousands of bananas that had accompanied them into the ground. There were free inflatables left around the ground for supporters as club executives jumped on the idea from the away end at Anfield last week, which became even more surreal for one of the heartier booings of the Premier League anthem from Blues.

With some trying to shame them for their defiance at Liverpool last week, City fans have tripled down. They sang for owner Sheikh Mansour, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, and told Ipswich supporters that they would be 'going down with the City'.

If that isn't enough to boil blood (or something else) up and down the land, the result of Maresca's team will certainly do it. Erling Haaland netted his 11th and 12th of the season in all competitions as he scored in the sixth league game in a row for what ultimately proved to be the winner.

Haaland's goals carried City to victory after Daizen Maeda had too easily outmuscled Marc Guehi for Ipswich to cancel out Foden's opener, and City's defensive frailties again show they can be got at. They have only conceded seven league goals, yet five of those have come within five minutes of scoring themselves.

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Guehi had a torrid afternoon and that included gifting Ipswich a way back into the match late on with a careless tackle in his own penalty area. Haaland laughed out loud when the fourth official added 12 minutes on as City looked to defend their lead - and there would have been serious faces if they had blown it - but the Blues did enough to maintain their perfect start to the season.

With a six-point advantage over Arsenal, nine over Liverpool and 15 over United, Maresca could not have asked for a better start - apart from, obviously, the guilty verdict that threatens to make this all for nothing. But as the full-time whistle blew, there were more immediate worries.

Haaland limped off after a crunching tackle in injury time and Antoine Semenyo was also hobbling. With Kovacic and Nunes having also gone off with knocks, that could be four players in doubt for Tuesday's game with AEK in the Champions League and what looks like another profitable afternoon may yet come at a cost.