The full-back placed his arm near the touchline to guide the ball and appeared to prevent it from going out into the corner. Despite loud protests from Arsenal players, referee Michael Oliver waved them off.
VAR official Darren England subsequently investigated the incident and determined that the ball “left Aina’s shoulder first” and that his arm was in a “natural position”. Mikel Arteta commented after the match: “We came here to win the game and for various reasons we couldn’t achieve that.”
“That’s a credit to them, because they’re very well organized and really good at breaking the flow when they have a certain advantage in the game. But there were also four big challenges for the players: Martinelli’s opening goal, Declan Rice’s attack, Mikel and Bukayo’s headers. On top of that, there were obviously very clear penalties not given in the box.”
“So the fact that we couldn’t win the game without allowing a single shot on target is still disappointing. Besides that, I think we can do better in certain areas of attack.”
Arteta disputed the rationale behind the decision not to award the penalty, insisting the player’s arm movement was intentional. “That explanation is incorrect,” he said.
“Other than that, the order (of the blows) is fine. The timing and the player’s intentions are very clear. Otherwise, I wouldn’t sit here and say, in my opinion, this is a very clear penalty.”
On Sunday, Aina shared his thoughts on the draw with Forest on social media. “It was great to be back at the city ground in front of the fans,” he wrote, along with a few snapshots from the match. Interestingly, one of the first images he posted but later deleted was a screenshot of a controversial incident in which he appeared to be using his arm to control the ball.
Aina also uploaded a photo of wrestler Eddie Gero and paired it with audio of his entrance theme, “Viva La Raza.” The 2016 song includes the lyrics, “I lie, I cheat, I steal.”
Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo was quick to respond to Aina’s post, commenting with four laughing face emojis and the word “nostalgia”. Forest boss Sean Dyche told TNT Sports: “I think once something like this starts to be accepted, we all have to step away from it. I think it’s ridiculous.”
“We have to be careful of them. If we’re going to do it (as handball), we’d better stop football. The rules have to be careful. You know what they’re supposed to see? People pretending to be injured. That’s the new diving.”
