Pep Guardiola says VAR decisions could do with ‘a little more consistency’

Pep Guardiola has seen last-minute Manchester City winners chalked off against Tottenham before, and said Gabriel Jesus’s disallowed stoppage-time goal was like deja vu of the VAR experience in their Champions League quarter‑final in April.

“Last season it was offside, this time it was handball,” the Manchester City manager said. “If it was hands it was hands, the decision is made in London so there’s nothing I can do or say about it. We could do with a little more consistency, though. It that was hands by Aymeric Laporte why was Fernando Llorente not hands last season?

Related: Lucas Moura earns Spurs draw at Manchester City as VAR history repeats

“There was no penalty when the ball hit Andreas Christensen on the arm when Chelsea played Liverpool in midweek. I also thought we should have had a penalty when Érik Lamela fouled Rodrigo in the area. The VAR people must have been having a cup of coffee at that moment.”

Though the last-minute disappointment clearly hurt, Guardiola felt City’s performance had been one of the best under his supervision, and Mauricio Pochettino did not disagree. “They were better than us, they dominated the game,” the Spurs manager said.

“I am happy to take a point from a game like that, it was a positive lesson for us because we had to show fight and character to twice come back from behind. The result reflects massive credit on the team, particularly as we are not a settled squad at the moment. We have to wait until the end of the transfer window in Europe before we know who is going and who is staying.”

Stats showing City had 30 shots to Tottenham’s three give a fair indication of the way the game went and not for the first time Guardiola found himself ruing indecisiveness in front of goal, though he played down a touchline disagreement with Sergio Agüero when the striker was withdrawn. “It was a misunderstanding. Sergio was upset because he thought I blamed him for their second equaliser,” the City manager said. “Emotions were running high. We played really well, we controlled left and right and created chances against a good side but we need to be more clinical. Tottenham created two chances and nothing else but unfortunately for us they scored them both. Today our pressing and control was fantastic but we could not win the match. People will say we should do better but I don’t know.

Spurs made it hard for us, and of course when you score what you think is a winner right at the end it is hard to take when it is disallowed.”

Pochettino had some sympathy with Guardiola on that point too. “I have been a little bit critical of VAR in the past but people don’t want to hear managers moaning all the time,” he said. “It is part of the game now, rules are rules and we have to accept them. Personally I still love to watch games from long ago when the referee was the boss, but things have moved on. We are in the age of VAR.”