Arsenal suffered a blow in their title hopes yet again after failing to beat Brighton in their trip to the south coast. The sides played out a 1-1 draw, which was marred by controversy, particularly in how the home side scored their equaliser.

Mikel Arteta came out after the game to describe the incident as something he nor the people he admitted to asking had ever seen before. Liverpool’s draw with Manchester United has kept the title hopes alive but come May, the Gunners may rue these lost points.

There were plenty of talking points from the match but particularly when it came to how the game was officiated – sadly which were mostly bad. With that said, football.london takes a look at the different incidents and gives its verdict on the incidents from the game

READ MORE: Arsenal receive new William Saliba penalty referee verdict as surprise Joao Pedro point made

READ MORE: Riccardo Calafiori reveals what William Saliba said after Arsenal conceded controversial penalty

William Saliba penalty

With the lead secured but having lost goalscorer Ethan Nwaneri at half-time through injury, Arsenal opted to sit conservatively on their lead and stifle the Brighton attacks. Barring one overhit cross, the home side rarely looked like scoring but were given the gift of a penalty after Anthony Taylor deemed William Saliba to have fouled Joao Pedro in the box after “missing” an attempted header and connecting with the forward.

FL review: Replays have since clearly shown that William Saliba did indeed make contact with the ball before coming into connection with Joao Pedro. After the Brighton forward heads the ball, Saliba changes its trajectory taking it out of the intended path and with several covering defenders out of Pedro’s control. It was Saliba's intention to get the ball with his head, and he succeeded.

Mikel Arteta claimed that it had taken three seconds for the VAR to confirm the penalty and commentary appeared to support this claim too. Further assessment of the video footage would have revealed that Saliba did indeed make contact with the ball and this should never have been given and is exactly what VAR exists to overturn.

It is worth pointing out that former referee and Sky Sports pundit Dermot Gallagher claimed: "The ball gets him." And also worth watching out in future for any moments where the ball gets played onto a defending player and a penalty is not given...

FL verdict: Incorrect decision, no penalty.

Gabriel Magalhaes penalty shout

In the first half, Arsenal had the chance to attempt a corner from the left side. Gabriel Magalhaes has been a potent threat from these situations as teams have since tried to do everything in their power to stop his threatening runs into the deeper crosses from Declan Rice and fellow corner takers.

As the corner is whipped in, cameras spot Matt O'Riley wrong-footed by the run of Gabriel to the midfielder's left and he goes to ground. As he does so, he takes out Gabriel, who is making an attempt to run for the cross and prevents him from getting there. The referee, spotted in the bottom right of the image, says nothing doing, as does VAR.

FL review: There is a much stronger argument for this to be a penalty than the one that was actually given in the game. In all honesty, I personally do not want to see penalties given for either. However, if this is what officials constitute as the bar, this would seemingly be above it.

FL verdict: Wrong decision (I guess?). The penalty should’ve been awarded based on the threshold they were indeed being given for...

Liverpool 2-2 Manchester United

Now, these do not concern Arsenal in regards to their clash with Brighton. But it would be remiss if we did not talk about three considerably odd incidents that have plenty of links to the Gunners in the other title-influencing clash at Anfield.

Liverpool drew 2-2 with Manchester United thanks to a late goal from Amad Diallo. The stalemate gives Arsenal hope that the race for the title may not be over like many felt it was following their own draw on Saturday evening.

Yet in the game, there were three incidents that I would like to highlight. The first is from a Manchester United player, Rasmus Hojlund, who was spotted delaying the restart as Virgil van Dijk tried to take a quick free-kick with what might be the most obvious kick away of the ball we’ll see.

Michael Oliver, the man who sent Leandro Trossard off at the Etihad Stadium for a second yellow, barely moved a muscle witnessing the Dane’s transgression. It was a Luis Diaz special – no he wasn’t punished for his at the Emirates Stadium either.

Oliver would then miss a perfect sliding challenge by Harry Maguire on Mohamed Salah immediately in front of him. Think Declan Rice at West Ham, which lead to Emerson scoring the Hammers' second goal from a free-kick that never should have been.

Then comes the Darwin Nunez challenge on Matthijs de Light. The Uruguayan can be seen looking at De Light before colliding dangerously into the leaping defender, making little-to-no attempt to challenge for the ball, with really only eyes to damage the Dutchman.

It was a blatant case of serious foul play he was lucky to remain on the field following the incident. Van Dijk escaped a sending off at Arsenal for a stamp on Kai Havertz where Arsenal instead have seen players sent off for tapping the ball off the field, it is a strange game sometimes isn’t it?