The atmosphere will be white-hot. And that won't only be generated by the home support. This will be the barometer. City's traveling fans are the hardest of the hardcore. The ultras. And how they approach this day will give us all the clearest of signs of how City will take on this Premier League verdict.
Will Ferran Soriano, the club's chief exec, take his seat inside the director's box at Anfield? Will the chairman, Khladoon al-Mubarak do the same? A show of unity. Of defiance. Will they let their presence known to those watching from the Anfield Road End? For now. From the club. It's been attack, attack, attack. City aren't standing down. Nor Abu Dhabi. Nor the club's sponsors. As it stands, no-one inside City are rolling over. How the away support acts a week on Sunday will give us the clearest indication yet of how City intend to react to this verdict.
Jeer the players. Barrack the board. And you fancy City's appeal will capitulate. Without the backing of the support, management won't have the stomach to wage a real, drawn-out legal fight. But if they're as defiant as Soriano has been this past week. As bold as the statement that accompanied confirmation of their appeal. Then that support, from the club's most important constituent, will be the fillip needed for the board and Abu Dhabi to come all guns blazing against this ruling.
We've had the hysterics. The wailing and flailing from scribes and pundits. Demands for relegation - not just from the Premier League, but the Football League itself. Even for City to be disbanded, just like old rivals Bury, never to be seen again. And amid all the hyberbole, one component has been ignored. The most important component - the local fans and the local community.
Not the blow-ins. Not the influencers. The real City support. The fans whom remember the days of Kevin Horlock, Andy Morrison and trips to Priestfield in League One. Who experienced the roller coaster of Maine Road, Thaksin Shinawatra and Robinho pre- the Abu Dhabi buyout - and then Sergio Aguero and Pep Guardiola.
They're the ones whom matter in all this. The locals who have followed the club up and down the country for decades. Across Europe. The memories. The dreams. The locals whom have seen the regeneration of the east end of Manchester. The infrastructure. The education centres. The community. So many have benefited from that incredible investment. Yet now it is demanded of them to turn their back on all that. Reject the people who have improved their city and community. And all at the drop of a hat...?
We put this question to Dr Tom Bason, a professor in sport and event management at Coventry University, last week. Just how does a fan who lived through 'that Gillingham game' reason with the ruling and the reaction it has garnered? And to be fair, the doc's response was excellent:
"I don't know how they reconcile it," Bason told Football Presse. "The way that I was almost trying to think of it in my head is it's like, because your football club becomes your family, and it's almost like, I don't know, if your brother is accused of a crime and they deny it and deny it and deny it, and you support them and support them and support them through that, and then it comes to trial and it becomes increasingly clear that they did the crime.
"On the one hand, perhaps they've done something that's not great. On the other hand, it's your brother. And the emotions... I suspect Manchester City fans are having kind of similar emotions. Obviously, you have some who are just still very, very defiant with Manchester City.
"They didn't do anything. It'll all come out in the wash and they'll be found not guilty. Or if they are found guilty, then it's because the panel was biased and the Premier League's processes were unfair. But I don't think that's representative of most Manchester City fans.
"I think most Manchester City fans are going to be incredibly conflicted at the moment.
"I think they'll still look back on, you know, like winning in Istanbul and the Aguero goal and Gundogan scoring at Aston Villa. I think they'll still look back on those situations with, you know, huge amounts of happiness, but it may also be slightly tainted."
Correct. The taunting. The mocking. It's been pathetic. And it's been driven by the media, not the online mob. Amid this frenzy, not enough consideration has been given to the average City fan and what he is feeling and experiencing. Not enough consideration has been shown to those locally who have only seen an incredible rejuvenation of their neighbourhood thanks to the Abu Dhabi money.
How do they, as Bason says, reconcile that with this Premier League verdict? Particularly if the appeal is rejected?
For this column, we'd encourage all parties to get around a table as soon as possible. If City's appeal doesn't appear to be going anywhere, then negotiate. Haggle. And this must come from both sides. You cannot, after so much publicity during this international break, have City playing into next season and beyond with no clear ruling and no clear punishment settled.
The timing of the Premier League's announcement could not have been worse. With no club football for three weeks, the verdict sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Every man and his dog knows about the case and has an opinion. This isn't going away - and it will hang over the competition until a definitive decision on the punishment and City's acceptance of it is made.
And that, of course, is if City's appeal is unsuccessful. But beyond all that, spare a thought for the City support. For the board, for Abu Dhabi, Anfield in a week could be a reckoning. How the away support reacts could be decisive in terms of how much longer this Manchester City case drags on.