Pep Guardiola must stop his illogical referee rants after latest outburst - there is no Premier League conspiracy against free-spending Man City

Guardiola's comments in the press conference and his behaviour towards Hallam at full-time was the latest example of the coach's morphing into the man who he used to consider his sworn enemy, Jose Mourinho. 

The Portuguese coach frequently used referees as scapegoats in his epic battles with Guardiola's Barcelona both with Inter and Real Madrid, while the Catalan held the moral high ground.

But now Guardiola is resembling Mourinho in more ways than one. His holding up of six fingers to Liverpool fans to indicate each Premier League title he had won with City was straight out of the Mourinho playbook of pettiness even if it could be excused as ultimately harmless. 

However, his targetting of referees is more sinister.

He was singling out a referee making his debut in the Premier League, an official who stood his ground against VAR. Given Guardiola's own issues with VAR and his furious - and justified - response to Antoine Semenyo's goal at Newcastle being ruled out earlier this month following a six-minute review, it seemed contradictory for him to be opposing a referee not bowing down to the VAR machine.

And his general broadside against Premier League officials, such as mentioning referees' chief Howard Webb by name, made little sense. If the Premier League establishment was so against City, then why would VAR officials at Stockley Park have recommended that Hallam review the play?

This is not the first time he has gone after individual officials. Former referee Graham Scott told The Telegraphhow Guardiola came up behind him during one match late in the 2020-21 season,held him tightly, lifted him off the ground then told him words to the effect of: "We have won the league, and there is nothing you can do about it."

Rather than being an example of anti-City bias, Saturday's incident merely underlined how handballs are often subjective, and how it is possible for top-level officials to have differing views of one incident. 

Yerson Mosquera's hands were in a natural position as he was running to keep up with Omar Marmoush and the ball hit his elbow before striking his chest. He was also only a couple of yards from Marmoush, with no time to think about the position of his arms.

It was far from the cut-and-dry scenario Guardiola suggested. Guardiola was actually more justified in bringing up the decision to not send Diogo Dalot off in the Manchester derby the previous week. 

But on the day of the derby itself, the coach kept his cool and although he made it clear he disagreed with the decision, he chose to focus more on his side's wretched performance at Old Trafford.

For Guardiola to react so strongly to Hallam's decision after a game City had won, scoring their second goal only a few minutes after the penalty incident, was all the more baffling. But what was more bizarre was him trying to paint City as the victims of a conspiracy against them by saying he wants to get his injured players back as soon as possible to negate the effect of the referees not giving them the right decisions.

It is true that City are reeling from an injury crisis and have had a couple of big decisions go against them lately. But it is also true that they  have used their financial might to counteract the situation and bolster their squad by signing Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi, two top players that were highly coveted by their rivals. 

While neither signing was an example of transfer hubris, City managed to beat rivals such as Liverpool to getting Guehi due to offering him a reported salary of £300,000 per week while also reportedly paying a considerable fee to his agent.

While most clubs have been very quiet in the January window, City have spent £85m. That's nearly double the amount spent by West Ham, who have the second-highest amount spent by a team in January, and more than triple the Irons' net spend. 

City were also throwing cash around last year, shelling out £180m on four new recruits. And last summer they spent £220m. It's a total of £485m in 13 months, a net spend of £425m.

So, as much as Guardiola wants to depict the odds as being stacked against City, the opposite is true. 

There is another reason to not take the serial-winning coach's claims too seriously: everyone is still waiting for an outcome into the hearing related to the Premier League's 115 charges (now at 130) against City for alleged breaches of its financial rules. 

It is approaching three years since the charges were announced in February 2023 and more than 16 months since the hearing. City deny any wrongdoing but the longer the wait goes on for a verdict, the more frustrating it is for the 19 other clubs in the league. 

Guardiola is within his rights to try and motivate his players as he wishes and he has used press conferences to his advantage before, such as his 'Happy Flowers' rant during the treble season. That also followed a City victory but it sent a message to his players that they could not rest on their laurels and it worked. 

The initial announcement of the charges, which led to a staunch defence of the club by Guardiola then and ever since, has also helped create an us against them mentality.

With City closing the gap on Arsenal to four points in the title race, Guardiola might well think that this is the right time to create another siege mentality. It might well lead to City reclaiming their title. 

However, he should not be bringing individual referees into his fight. And nor should anyone buy into his claim that City are fighting against the system.