Why Arsenal Were Denied ‘Very Clear Penalty’ in Title Race Stumble

Mikel Arteta raged against the Premier League’s explanation of a hotly controversial VAR call.

Ola Aina came close to giving away a penalty against Arsenal on Saturday. | Andrew Kearns-CameraSport/Getty Images

Nottingham Forest fullback Ola Aina was deemed to have his arm in a “natural position” by the officials who denied Arsenal what Mikel Arteta believed to be a “clear penalty” in Saturday’s goalless stalemate.

With 10 minutes remaining in a tight, tense affair at the City Ground, Aina shielded a loose ball away from Arsenal’s lurking striker Gabriel Jesus. The defender was supported in his efforts by teammate Elliot Anderson, yet still took the unorthodox and seemingly instinctual step of moving his right arm towards the ball to prevent it immediately bouncing behind for another Arsenal corner.

The Gunners, who had squandered a glut of earlier chances—most prominently a skewed close-range effort from Gabriel Martinelli—failed to find a breakthrough thereafter.

The draw took Arteta’s side seven points clear of Manchester City after a thumping derby win for Manchester United earlier in the day, yet it also afforded Aston Villa the chance to close the gap to four points should they defeat Everton on Sunday.

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Premier League Explain Why Arsenal Were Not Given a Penalty

Mikel Arteta was not impressed with the officials. | Catherine Ivill-AMA/Getty Images

On-pitch referee Michael Oliver had an obstructed view of the incident but halted play while in conversation with VAR Darren England. Replays showed that the ball did indeed brush Aina’s arm, yet the official Premier League Match Centre subsequently clarified that “the ball was played off Aina’s shoulder first, while his arm was also in a natural position.”

Law 11 in the FA Handbook deems that a player “is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation.”

Arteta did not agree, insisting that his side had “obviously” been denied “a very clear penalty.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche took a rather different view.

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Dyche: You Might As Well Cancel Football

Sean Dyche wasn’t impressed. | Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

Dyche was more concerned with the penalty appeal his side had overlooked after Jurriën Timber tangled with Callum Hudson-Odoi right on the edge of the box. TNT Sports pundit and former Arsenal centre back Martin Keown swatted aside those claims as quickly as the match officials and instead pushed the Forest boss on Aina’s supposed handball.

“You’ve seen those given,” Keown argued. Dyche hadn’t. “You might as well cancel football if you’re going to give that,” the firmly spoken coach twice repeated. “I’m being serious,” Dyche continued in the face of Keown’s exasperation.

“In your day would you have accepted that?” he asked his fellow retired professional. “Well, no,” Keown began. “No, I don’t think so,” Dyche abruptly concluded, turning his back to the former defender to see Steven Gerrard giggling away.

The principle protagonist in this incident, Aina himself, was similarly nonplussed. “I felt a little nudge,” he explained in his post-match interview. “It touched me, but hands are by my side,” Aina argued. “I think it was the right call.”

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