The reason Manchester United were not awarded penalty vs Arsenal despite Cedric Soares handball

Arsenal took on Manchester United at the Emirates on Saturday afternoon in another huge clash in the race for the top-four. A 4-2 victory for the Gunners against Chelsea brought them back into the running and level on points with Tottenham.

Another victory against Ralf Rangnick's men would take them above their arch-rivals, at least until the evening when Antonio Conte and co. take on Brentford. Goals from Nuno Tavares, Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka fired them into a commanding position midway through the second half on Saturday, helping them to a 3-1 win.

But with the score at 2-0 in the first half, Manchester United looked as if they were about to be awarded a stonewall penalty. As Cedric Soares attempted to usher the ball out of the play under the attentions of Jadon Sancho, the right-back stumbled to the ground and diverted the ball out of the way with his arm.

There was uncertainty about whether the incident was seen at the time but the suspicion was that VAR would soon give a penalty. But it did not and plenty of fans on social media were left baffled.

With the game taking place on BT Sport, former referee Peter Walton was on hand to explain why it was not awarded. "It is not a penalty because if the ball is trapped between your body and arm, it cannot be given," Walton said during BT Sport's coverage of the game. He then added: "Referee made the right decision in that moment."

Into the second half, Walton was also on hand to confirm why a penalty was not awarded against Tavares for appearing to drag Anthony Elanga down in the Arsenal penalty area, saying: "The saving grace there is the fact the foul happened outside the area, therefore VAR can't get involved. But for me, I think that looks like a penalty."