Missed opportunity for Arsenal – but were they denied ‘clear penalty’?

Arsenal were nine points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table after losing 2-0 at Old Trafford, but Mikel Arteta’s side were frustrated for the second straight league game.

For the first time in 14 years, Arsenal have drawn 0-0 with Liverpool last week, following their first two games of the 2012-13 season against Sunderland and Stoke City.

Noni Madueke, a winger, acknowledged it felt like a “missed opportunity,” while Arteta pointed to his side and created “four big chances” without Forest ever getting a single shot on target.

The biggest disappointment for Arteta was not given a second-half penalty for a handball by Forest defender Ola Aina.

With only about ten minutes left in the match, the Aina handball incident occurred.

The Forest right-back was pushed by his own team-mate Elliot Anderson and challenged by Gabriel Jesus to control a bouncing ball in his own penalty area.

As the defender attempted to turn, the ball hit Aina’s shoulder, which caused Arteta and Arsenal to vehemently request a spot-kick, but it was unsuccessful.

The Premier League Match Center on X stated: “The referee’s call to no penalties for Arsenal was reviewed and confirmed by VAR, who determined that Aina’s shoulder was first when the ball was played off of his arm first, which was also in a natural position.”

Unsurprisingly, Forest boss Sean Dyche disagreed despite Arteta’s steadfast claim that his team had been denied a “clear penalty.”

“We have to leave it,” I believe if these start to be given. That seems absurd to me. We must be cautious with those, Dyche said.

If you’re going to play football, you might as well cancel it. The regulations must be cautious. You are aware of what they ought to examine. people pretending to be hurt. That’s new diving, exactly.

The officials believed to have made the right decision, according to retired Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann, who asserted that the arm is “close to the body and is in a justifiable position.”

In the Premier League, handball received only nine penalties last season. With 34 awarded in Serie A and 37 in Ligue 1, that was a major outlier in comparison to other European leagues.

Although there has been a change to this term, the English top flight still has 15 handball spot kicks per 15 games, which is the lowest among the top five leagues.

In the Premier League, six have been given through the video assistant referee (VAR). The arm would always be far away from the body, or the ball would always be moving clearly and purposefully.

And it is deliberate handball, not to mention Aina, the Forest defender’s only penalty claim.

Aina’s arm was in a restraining position for his movement when the ball fell off his shoulder. You can’t say that hitting the ball would constitute a handball offense.

Due to the fact that it occurred behind bodies on the goalline, the referee, Michael Oliver, had no chance to notice it. That leaves the sole arbitrator, Darren England, in charge of deciding whether or not toimpose a penalty might be seen as a serious mistake.

The significance of Anderson’s role Could you say that Aina deliberately handled the ball while making a move? Or did his teammate bump into him as a result?

Of course, there are arguments on both sides. A defender is also taken into account if they have been challenged by an attacker. If it didn’t apply to team-mates, it would be absurd.

It is reasonable to assume that Anderson’s subsequent movement resulted from this rather than a deliberate action given that he collided with Aina before his arm moved to the ball.

You must locate that motivational moment somewhere. According to Keown, “you have to do something special to become champions.”

There are three points Arsenal could improve with more clinical goalkeeping, because they are creating opportunities, not in doubt.

With joint-top scorers Viktor Gyokeres and Leandro Trossard only scoring five goals in the league, the lack of a regular goal score has raised eyebrows at Arsenal in recent weeks.

“We could have been better,” Arteta said, but this is happening across the league for all of the teams.