Gary Neville insisted Kevin De Bruyne should have been booked for diving while the Manchester City star was trying to win a penalty against Leicester.
City were trying to reverse their poor run of form at the King Power Stadium, which saw them drop to seventh in the Premier League table in what turned out to be a disastrous title defence.
They took an early lead with Savinho's first league goal for the champions after Phil Foden's shot straight into the wing was saved by Foxes substitute goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk.
And they had the chance to add another to their tally on the half-hour when De Bruyne went down under a challenge from Jannik Vestergaard, although replays showed he went down too easily and Michael Oliver rejected appeals.
A VAR review confirmed the decision, as replays showed the Belgian fell to the ground with little or no contact.
And Neville, on commentary during Sky Sport's coverage of the game, pulled no punches with his analysis of the incident.
“He went down too easily,” Neville began. 'You can see that the way he fell was uncomfortable.
'You can see it dove from up here. He should probably be reprimanded, he's tired of ripping off the referee. But I wasn't completely against one of my teammates jumping in, so I just…'
However, back in the starting eleven, he had a big part in Savinho's first goal, volleying towards Foden to shoot after being picked out by Rico Lewis.
It was his first start since December 15, and the midfielder, now 33, has struggled with his fitness for a long period of time.
He mainly lined up in central midfield, often moving into the right half-space or channel, in an attempt to create opportunities.
Guardiola said of his man before kick-off: “We want the best players to be fit and play well.” We are happy to have Kevin. I hope he can play like he does.”