It has been revealed why Arsenal were not awarded a penalty during their clash against Manchester United. United held the Gunners to a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford on Sunday evening, winning a crucial point in the race for a top-half finish.
Bruno Fernandes fired United ahead in the final moments of the first half with a brilliant free-kick. Declan Rice levelled proceedings with a quarter of an hour or so left to play, but Ruben Amorim's side stood strong and resisted a late siege from Arsenal.
While points were shared at Old Trafford this weekend, the result could've been very different had Anthony Taylor awarded the visitors one of the penalties they appealed for. First of all, Ayden Heaven appeared to handle the ball in the United box.
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Speaking on Sky Sports, Peter Drury confirmed that the incident was reviewed by the Video Assistant Referee, Paul Tierney, and his assistant, Timothy Wood, at Stockley Park, adjudging that the teenager hadn't committed a handball offence because he headed the ball first.
"VAR has completed a check on that handball enquiry – head onto arm is the verdict," said the commentator. To which, Gary Neville, who was on co-commentary duty, replied: "It just goes past his hand and he heads it back onto his arm."
Then, later in the match, Gabriel Magalhaes believed he had been fouled by Diogo Dalot, who appeared to grab a handful of the Arsenal defender's shirt. Neville said: "He is not happy, Gabriel.
"He is complaining about being grabbed. What VAR have said is that Gabriel throws himself to the floor. Dalot has his arms on him but the defender just dives forward."
Speaking to reporters after the game, Arteta was quizzed on Arsenal's performance. The Gunners boss said: "Frustrating not to win the game, but with everything that we did, especially in the staff, it's 43 to 44 minutes.
"The dominance, how we dominate every aspect of the game, full control, we lacked a little bit in the last 15 to 20 metres, that showed to have more purpose, more direction, the last pass, the last action, but the game is clearly for us and going in the direction that we wanted.
"Unfortunately, one long ball, we don't manage that ball well, we give it away, we create a foul, in a really dangerous area when you have to rely on them not taking advantage of the quality.
"That's a really bad bet against Manchester United, they capitalised on that in the second half. We tried to generate the momentum, we scored the goal, and my feeling was that they were struggling because they could not get out and I didn't feel that they had the legs to do that.
"We opened the door for them to maybe win the game because we gave some very unusual balls away and very basic things done really poorly. Even though we have three big chances, the reality is that we saved us [ourselves] and at the end, in the last time, we could have lost the game."
United must now turn their attention to the second leg of the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday night. They host Real Sociedad at Old Trafford in what is expected to be an electric fixture.
