The Aina handball incident happened with about 10 minutes of the match remaining.
The Forest right-back attempted to control a bouncing ball in his own penalty area while being challenged by Gabriel Jesus and bumped by his own team-mate Elliot Anderson.
The ball hit Aina’s shoulder before striking his arm as the defender tried to turn, prompting Arteta and Arsenal to vehemently appeal for a spot-kick – to no avail.
The Premier League Match Centre on X said: “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.”
While Arteta was adamant his side had been denied a “clear penalty”, Forest boss Sean Dyche, unsurprisingly, did not agree.
“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 said.
“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.”
Retired Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann told BBC Sport he thought the officials had come to the correct decision, saying: “The arm is close to the body and is in a justifiable position.”
The decision split the watching pundits, with ex-Chelsea winger Pat Nevin telling BBC Radio 5 Live he thought Aina’s arm “moved towards the ball”, but former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard insisting it would have been “soft” to award a spot-kick for the incident.