Guardiola: ‘It’s diving, it’s diving, it’s diving’

Pep Guardiola has revealed his anger at VAR’s failure to award Kevin De Bruyne a penalty in Manchester City’s win over Crystal Palace.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach was less happy when his side were not awarded a penalty after De Bruyne went down following a challenge by Wilfried Zaha in the second half of City’s 2-0 win over the Eagles.

“It’s diving. It’s diving, it’s diving,” Guardiola sarcastically stated. “Every weekend it is diving. Bournemouth, here. But against Tottenham it was hands, real hands in the 94th minute. It’s diving again.”

Jesus started up front for City with Sergio Aguero, who is joint top of the Premier League scoring charts, an unused substitute at Selhurst Park.

The 22-year-old Brazil international broke the deadlock in the 39th minute with his 50th goal for City, and it proved an invaluable contribution as Guardiola’s men bounced back from their shock 2-0 home loss to Wolves two weeks ago.

The City boss said: “We have two incredible strikers. I will not talk about how important Sergio Aguero is for this club and ourselves. He is so important.

“Gabriel Jesus came back from Brazil and had rhythm and Sergio was 10 days without rhythm and today I decided (who played), but both are important.

“When Sergio plays he is a good level and when Gabriel plays he is a good level. I decide it on many things.”