Pep Guardiola's Distrust of VAR in Title Race

Pep Guardiola has never hidden his distrust of VAR. This week, with the title race crackling and every decision magnified, he stripped it back to its bluntest form.

"I never trust anything since they (VAR) arrived a long time ago," the Manchester City manager said. "Always I learned you have do it better, do it better, be in a position to do it better because you blame yourself with what you have to do, because [VAR] is a flip of a coin."

No caveats. No softening. For Guardiola, the game is decided on the pitch or it isn’t worth talking about.

Arsenal’s break, City’s response

The latest flashpoint came at the London Stadium, where Arsenal clung to a 1-0 lead over West Ham and then clung to VAR. Deep into stoppage time, Callum Wilson thought he had snatched a dramatic equaliser. The stadium erupted. The title race looked ready to tilt.

Then came the pause. The lines. The angles. The wait.

VAR official Darren England sent referee Chris Kavanagh to the monitor, and after a long review, the goal disappeared. Pablo Felipe was judged to have fouled David Raya in the build-up. West Ham’s celebrations died on the spot; Arsenal’s title push stayed intact.

The outcome left Mikel Arteta’s side five points clear at the top. City still have a game in hand, but the margin is real, the pressure unmistakable.

Guardiola, though, refused to let that controversy shape his narrative.

“One is a job for the institutions that rule the competition,” he said, pushing the whole debate away from his dressing room door. His message to his players was simple: don’t rely on Stockley Park to save you, or to blame it when it doesn’t.

Scars from Wembley

His mistrust of the system is not theoretical. It is rooted in Wembley, in two FA Cup finals he believes slipped away not just because of his team’s performance, but because the officials and the technology failed them.

In the 2024 final against Manchester United, Guardiola watched Erling Haaland go down under a challenge from Lisandro Martinez and saw no penalty given. Later, he felt Haaland was being held by Kobbie Mainoo at a corner as City chased the game in what became a 2-1 defeat. No intervention. No review that changed anything in his favour.

The following year, in the 2025 final, he saw another moment burn into his memory: Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson appearing to handle the ball outside his area, yet escaping any punishment. Another big stage, another big call he felt went missing.

“We lost the two finals of the FA Cup because the referees didn’t do their jobs they should do, even the VAR,” Guardiola insisted. Then came the twist that defines his stance. “When this happens it is because we have to do better, not the referees or VAR.”

He doesn’t trust the system. But he refuses to let it become an excuse.

Blinkers on, Palace next

City now head to Selhurst Park on Wednesday night, a ground that has made bigger teams suffer and where a single lapse can derail a season. After that, another FA Cup final looms, this time against Chelsea. The backdrop is familiar: high stakes, high tension, and the lingering threat that another VAR call could cut across everything.

Guardiola wants no part of that storyline inside his camp.

“Always when I said to the players when I arrived here and Bayern Munich and Barcelona – do it, do it, do it better,” he said, returning to the mantra that has underpinned his career. For him, focus is not a cliché, it is a survival rule.

“I always learned that when you lose the focus, you are in a dangerous situation. The only thing we can do is do it better, that is only in your control. You have to do better and better for yourself, and that is focusing on Crystal Palace for us.”

So while the rest of the league argues over replays, freeze-frames and VAR audio, Guardiola drills the same idea into a squad chasing down Arsenal: control the controllables, erase the margin for error, play well enough that no review can touch you.

The technology may flip the coin. His demand is that City make sure the title does not.