Like it or loathe it, the EPL title was decided by a man reviewing a foul on a pitch-side monitor 17 times.

Despite Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Crystal Palace taking the race into next week, the race is over.

Pep Guardiola knows it. The players know it. And so do City’s fans, thousands of whom didn’t even turn up for Thursday’s game.

The VAR intervention that saw referee Chris Kavanagh chalk off West Ham’s “equaliser” on Sunday clinched it.

Not mathematically, but it is surely a formality that Arsenal will win their two remaining games.

That would shut the door on City even if Pep’s men win theirs.

The Gunners face already-relegated Burnley at home and then go to the same disinterested Palace.

Safe from the drop, Oliver Glasner will be resting even more players before the European Conference League final the following Wednesday.

The chances of the league leaders messing up now exist only in Pep’s dreams.

And even if they do find a bunch of banana skins in Mikel Arteta’s technical area, City have a far tougher run-in.

They face two clubs with Champions League ambitions.

A bang-in-form Bournemouth, chasing a first Champions League place, will be a real challenge before they host Aston Villa.

Unai Emery’s men may have already secured their place among Europe’s elite if they beat Freiburg in the Europa League final.

But if they happen to slip up (unlikely), they could be all guns blazing to make amends with a top-five finish in the league.

City also have the not-so-small matter of the FA Cup final with Chelsea to negotiate on Saturday.

They will be strongly fancied against a club that is in total disarray. But Pep knows better than most that you underestimate the Blues at your peril.

As yelping underdogs, they beat City in the 2021 Champions League final and thrashed PSG to win the Club World Cup last year.

With the Blues, the more disorder, the more danger.

And City will be reeling under the sheer weight of fixtures.

At least by resting a few big guns against Palace, they’ll have some ammunition left for Wembley.

Having lost the previous two finals there, they won’t want to make it a hattrick.

But by appearing to prioritise the lesser competition, it looks very much as if they have surrendered the title race.

Pep made six changes from the side that beat Brentford last weekend, including sticking three of his biggest threats, Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki on the bench.

The fans had certainly given up, with what at first glance seemed an unbelievably low turnout for a supposedly do-or-die match.

On a miserable, rainy Manchester night with the expanded North End not yet open, you could see why it’s called “The Emptyhad”.

Inevitably, with Pep being Pep, there are suspicions that the White Flag might be a clever ploy to lull Arsenal into a false sense of security.

Let them take the field against Burnley in a celebratory mood and something disastrous might happen.

But against a club that has nothing to play for, has long been doomed and is now managerless, it’s a forlorn hope.

If, however, City beat Bournemouth to take it to the last day, the Gunners just could be so nervous that playing away at a London neighbour could see an outbreak of the heebie-jeebies.

It’s a slim hope, but all that City have to cling to.

Elsewhere, there’s still a lot to play for.

EPL clubs can sweep all three European tournaments. Two London rivals are going toe-to-toe to avoid the abyss.

And seemingly half the teams in the league can qualify for Europe next season. The jockeying for position is a veritable bunfight.

Zillions are at stake.

Three hundred and sixty EPL games have been played. There are just 20 to go. And an awful lot is riding on most of them.

The relegation scrap is now more interesting than the title race, but Spurs seem to have woken up in time.

They go to Chelsea and have Everton at home. West Ham go to Newcastle and have Leeds at home.

You can see the Hammers scraping more points, but they have to – they’re two behind Spurs with an inferior goal difference.

Meanwhile, back at the other end, the top 5 could become top 6.

An outbreak of sanity at Manchester United has seen them quietly rise to third. And they might even choose the right manager.

Liverpool are still in the mix but are also in flux. With fans split over Arne Slot, they could be in for a massive rebuild after having just completed one. For once they bought badly.

Tonight’s away game at Villa, brought forward from Sunday to allow Villa more time to prepare for the Europa League final, is a chance for Liverpool to seal fourth place.

Both are on 59 points and a win for either will guarantee a top-five finish and a place in the Champions League.

A win for Liverpool would surely clinch fourth place, given their superior goal difference. But this is being seen on Merseyside as scant consolation for such a huge summer investment.

So, it looks like VAR is having the last word and all that that entails.

I go back to the beginning when it was introduced for “clear and obvious” decisions and would only take five seconds.

What we are seeing is mission creep that is out of control.

It’s turning people away in disgust, along with a lot of other things – greed mainly – that are killing the game.

It was not brought in to decide titles and relegation places.

This season has kept us entertained as much as it has outraged us. But the anger is growing.

Enjoy it while we still can.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.