Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca offered a surprisingly candid defense of VAR officials despite his side benefiting from a glaring refereeing error during their 1-0 victory over Manchester United. The decisive moment came in the 60th minute at Old Trafford on Sunday, when Erling Haaland struck a controversial winning goal. The result maintained City’s perfect record in the Premier League, pushing them to four wins from four matches.

Speaking on Wednesday, Maresca refused to gloat over the decision that swung the Manchester derby in his team’s favor. Instead, the manager expressed genuine sympathy for the officials working under intense weekly scrutiny. Acknowledging that officiating decisions inevitably spark debate, he emphasized that mistakes are simply an unpredictable component of the game.

Maresca pointed to past derby encounters at Old Trafford where City found themselves on the wrong end of critical decisions to illustrate how refereeing calls balance out over time. “We lost the derby there. The goal was not a regular goal, if you remember,” Maresca stated when reflecting on previous matches at the venue. “To be honest, no one apologised. We are still waiting for the apology for that goal.”

Rather than dwelling on the debate, Maresca adopted a pragmatic viewpoint on the nature of refereeing in top-flight football. “Sometimes it happens for you, sometimes it happens against you. It’s football,” he explained, framing Sunday’s controversy as part of the sport’s natural balance over a long campaign.

When questioned about whether he was pleased that video refereeing technology would be absent in the early rounds of the League Cup, Maresca brushed the topic aside. Refusing to be drawn into broader debate over video technology, the manager redirected all focus back to Sunday’s hard-fought victory at Old Trafford and his team’s strong early-season form.