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.