Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli has apologised for trying to push injured Liverpool defender Conor Bradley off the pitch during Thursday’s 0-0 draw between the teams.
Northern Ireland international Bradley landed awkwardly near the touchline when chasing the ball in stoppage time, falling to the ground and immediately clutching his knee.
Martinelli then dropped the ball on the full-back before shoving him in the back in an attempt to get him off the playing surface to allow the game to continue.
That action sparked a melee between the two sets of players, with Martinelli and Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate both yellow-carded for their involvement.
After receiving treatment, Bradley was taken away on a stretcher and was later seen leaving Emirates Stadium on crutches and with a knee brace.
Former Manchester United players Gary Neville and Roy Keane were both highly critical of Martinelli, with Neville saying his actions were “absolutely disgraceful” and describing the Arsenal winger as an “idiot”.
Martinelli later issued an apology on social media, saying the two players had been in contact and he had already said sorry.
“I really didn’t understand he was seriously injured in the heat of the moment,” Martinelli posted on Instagram.
“I want to say I’m deeply sorry for reacting. Sending Conor all my best again for a quick recovery.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slot defended Martinelli after the match, suggesting the wider issue of time-wasting in football may have led to the flashpoint.
“I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy,” said Slot.
“I think the problem for him – and it’s a problem in general in football – is that there is so much time-wasting and players pretending that they are injured in the final parts of the game and during the game, that you can sometimes be annoyed if you want to try to score a goal that you think the player is time-wasting.
“You cannot ask Martinelli to think so clear in the 94th minute.”
While it is too soon to know the full extent of Bradley’s injury, Slot is concerned it could be serious and said that Martinelli would have acted differently if he was aware that was the case.
“I am 100% sure that if he knew what the injury might be, then he would never do that,” said Slot. “But it doesn’t look great if he has the injury which we fear he might have.
“But time-wasting, diving… I have seen it happen against us so many times this season that I can understand that Martinelli might have thought that this is time-wasting as well.
“He couldn’t have thought about ‘this is Liverpool, they don’t do this’.”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, whose side hold a six-point lead over Manchester City and Aston Villa at the top of the table, described Martinelli as an “incredible, lovely guy”.
He echoed Slot’s view that the winger probably did not realise the extent of Bradley’s problem.
“I don’t know what happened to Conor, but hopefully it’s not bad,” said Arteta. “But obviously there is no intention from Gabi to do anything bad to him.”
Bradley’s team-mate Dominik Szoboszlai said the right-back was in so much pain that he “didn’t want to come back on the pitch for time-wasting” and that “he couldn’t even think where he rolled” before Martinelli pushed him.
“I understand you want to win, we want to win as well, but I think the health of a player is much more important than something else,” Szoboszlai added.
‘I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it at all’
Neville, who was on co-commentary, was clearly angered by Martinelli’s actions at the time of the incident.
“You can’t push him off the pitch,” he said. “You cannot do that, you idiot.
“That’s so poor. I’m surprised the Liverpool players haven’t gone over and had a right pop at him. I think an apology is needed.
“Honestly, I don’t know how the Liverpool players didn’t go over there and whack him, to be honest with you, and take a red card. Absolutely disgraceful, that.”
Neville later added: “I believe football players are all good lads. He obviously thinks he’s trying to waste time at the end of the game, but I think you could see that was a bad one.”
Keane echoed Neville’s comments after full-time, describing the episode as a “disgrace”.
“I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it at all,” said Keane. “I’m surprised the Liverpool players didn’t go after Martinelli a bit more because that behaviour was a disgrace.
“You don’t know the injury the player’s got, it looks pretty bad, and you’re trying to push him off the pitch? Not good stuff, that.”
