Pep Guardiola's Trust Issues with VAR in Title Race
Pep Guardiola has never been shy about his feelings on VAR. This week, with the title race crackling and Arsenal riding the wave of another contentious call, he stripped it right back.
"I never trust anything since they (VAR) arrived a long time ago," he said. No softening, no caveats. Just a manager at the sharp end of English football spelling out exactly where he stands.
Arsenal’s break, City’s warning
The latest flashpoint came at the Emirates. Arsenal, clinging to a 1-0 lead over West Ham, thought they had been punished in stoppage time when Callum Wilson bundled the ball home. The away end exploded. The title race looked ready to twist again.
Then came the pause. The long, familiar pause.
In the VAR booth, Darren England called Chris Kavanagh to the monitor. The referee watched the replays, frame by frame, before ruling Pablo Felipe had fouled David Raya in the build-up. Goal disallowed. Arsenal’s lead preserved. The Gunners stayed five points clear at the top, City still lurking with a game in hand but now chasing shadows again.
For many, it was another night where the technology took centre stage. For Guardiola, it was another reminder of why he refuses to hand his season over to a screen at Stockley Park.
"Always I learned you have to 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," he said, pushing the responsibility back into his own dressing room. His message to his players was blunt: don’t leave your fate to someone else’s interpretation.
“One is a job for the institutions that rule the competition,” he added. His job, as he sees it, is everything that happens before the referee ever goes to the monitor.
Scars from Wembley
Guardiola’s mistrust is not theoretical. It comes from Wembley, from finals, from moments that still sting.
“We lost the two finals of the FA Cup because the referees didn’t do their jobs they should do, even the VAR,” he insisted.
He went straight to 2024. Manchester City against Manchester United. Erling Haaland collides with Lisandro Martinez in the box. No penalty. Later, at a corner, Guardiola believes Haaland is being held by Kobbie Mainoo. Again, nothing. City lose 2-1. The images linger in his mind, the sense that the system that was supposed to remove doubt only deepened it.
He then turned to the 2025 FA Cup final. Crystal Palace, Dean Henderson racing out, appearing to handle the ball outside his area. No card, no free-kick. No intervention. Another moment filed under “what if”.
For Guardiola, these are not just isolated calls; they are decisive breaks in major games, on the biggest domestic stage. They shape his entire view of the technology.
Yet even in his anger, he circles back to the same conclusion: “When this happens it is because we have to do better, not the referees or VAR.” The frustration is real, but so is the refusal to lean on it as an excuse.
Tunnel vision in a tight race
The context could hardly be more intense. Arsenal, under Mikel Arteta, have put themselves in front again. City, the serial winners, are chasing, aware that one slip in the league or the cups could turn a season of promise into a campaign of near misses.
Next comes a trip to Crystal Palace on Wednesday night, a fixture that has tripped up better City sides than this one. After that, another FA Cup final, this time against Chelsea. Another Wembley date. Another night where VAR will lurk in the background, ready to intervene.
Guardiola wants none of the noise. Not from pundits dissecting frames and freeze-frames. Not from his own players.
“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 shield.
“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.”
The title race will keep surging from one controversy to the next. VAR will keep stopping games, drawing lines, slowing hearts. Guardiola has made his position clear: he doesn’t trust the system, he doesn’t expect it to save him, and he doesn’t intend to build a season on the flip of a coin.
For Manchester City, the response is simple and ruthless: win enough, play well enough, be relentless enough that no monitor, no replay, and no late review can touch them.
