Arsenal felt Nottingham Forest had got away with one after Ola Aina handled the ball inside the penalty area – and the Nigeria international couldn’t resist a wind up on social media
Nottingham Forest defender Ola Aina has wound up Arsenal fans by writing – and then deleting – a cheeky social media post about his apparent handball. Forest held the Premier League leaders to a goalless draw at the City Ground on Saturday night, with VAR once again a talking point.
Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels produced a stunning save to keep out Bukayo Saka’s header, while Mikel Merino put a good chance wide as Arsenal failed to find the back of the net. The Gunners’ blunt attack frustrated Mikel Arteta, who was also annoyed by the home side surviving a penalty shout.
Aina appeared to handle the ball inside the box late on, with Arteta saying post-match that ‘a very clear penalty in the box has not been given’.
The Premier League match centre explained the call on X by writing: “The referee’s call of no penalty to Arsenal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that the ball was played off Aina’s shoulder first, while his arm was also in a natural position.”
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Aina knew he’d got away with one, judging by his Instagram post on Sunday. The Nigeria international shared a screengrab of the moment the ball touched his arm on his Instagram stories alongside a picture of WWE wrestler Eddie Guerrero with the song ‘Viva La Raza’. Guerrero was known as a cheater in wrestling with his catchphrase ‘lie, cheat, steal’.
Aina later deleted the post, replacing it with a picture of himself warming up for the game and the caption: “Viva La Raza. Just a bit of banter.” While the post was taken in the nature it was intended by some Arsenal fans, others were fuming with his apparent admission of guilt.
One Arsenal fan wrote on X: “If this happened to us, and Gabriel tweeted this, FA would have definitely looked into this, and would have scheduled a rematch ASAP.”
Another added: “He knew what he was doing. It was instinctive but he was trying to keep the ball inbound”. A third wrote: “He knows the crime he committed smh”.
Forest manager Sean Dyche did not agree with Arteta’s description of the incident as a ‘clear’ penalty. “I think if these start to get given we’ve all got to leave it. I think that’s ridiculous. We’ve got to be careful with those,” Dyche told TNT Sports.
“You may as well cancel football if you’re going to give that [as handball]. The rules have to be careful. You know what they should be looking at? People feigning injury. That’s the new diving.”
Pundits were divided on the decision, with ex-Chelsea winger Pat Nevin saying on BBC Radio 5 Live that he thought Aina’s arm ‘moved towards the ball’, but former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard said it would have been ‘soft’ to award a penalty.
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