Gary Neville blasted Gabriel Martinelli’s “disgraceful” behaviour after the Arsenal winger attempted to push Conor Bradley off the pitch when he was down having suffered what appeared to be a serious injury in Arsenal’s goalless draw with Liverpool.
Martinelli’s shove on Bradley sparked a furious reaction from Liverpool’s players and staff. The Arsenal forward also dropped the ball on the full-back, who was stretchered off.
Speaking immediately after the incident, Sky Sports’ Gary Neville said on commentary: “You can’t push him off the pitch! You cannot do that. That is so poor. I think an apology is needed.
“Bradley is being stretchered off. I’m fuming with Martinelli to be honest. Disgraceful.”
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Roy Keane and former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge react to Gabriel Martinelli trying to push Conor Bradley off the pitch in the latter stages of the match
After the match, Roy Keane added: “It’s not good. We know football, the player is a good lad.
“Throwing the ball at him, standing over him and getting a little knee on him. He tries to force him off.
“That behaviour is an absolute disgrace. He’s a good boy to roll over himself. Hopefully, Martinelli will have a look at it and hopefully, he’ll apologise for it. Not good stuff that.”
Daniel Sturridge added: “It’s disappointing to see. There’s passion and there’s being a winner, there’s wanting to help your team-mates, but you’ve got to be respectful as a footballer.
“Injuries are never a nice feeling. Martinelli is thinking time wasting but you’ve got to be self aware enough to see the guy is down. You’ve been there before.
“It’s disrespectful. It’s probably worse than disrespectful.”
Bradley came closest to scoring in the goalless contest, hitting the bar after a defensive mix-up from the Gunners.
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Arsenal mix-up at the back before Conor Bradley hits the bar!
Arteta: No intention to harm Bradley
Mikel Arteta defended the Brazilian over the incident, saying there would have been “no intention” to harm Bradley.
“He probably doesn’t know (that Bradley was injured). I don’t know what happened to Conor but hopefully he is ok. But obviously there is no intention from Gabby to do anything bad to him.”
Slot: I fear the worst for Bradley
Liverpool boss Arne Slot said after the game that he feared “the worst” for Bradley, who has already missed considerable time out this season through injury.
“I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli but he comes across as a nice guy,” Slot said.
“The problem for him, and it’s a problem in general in football, is that there is so much time-wasting in the final parts of games that sometimes you can be annoyed when you want to score a goal and you feel a player is pretending to be injured.
“I’m 100 per cent sure if he knew what the injury might be, he wouldn’t do that.”
‘Title far from a formality for lacklustre Arsenal’
Sky Sports’ Nick Wright at the Emirates:
“Arsenal are six points clear. The draw is far from disastrous. But this title is far from a formality if they play as poorly as they did in that second half.
“The Gunners almost nicked it with Gabriel’s header at the end. The defender had his head in his hands.
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Highlights from the Premier League match between Arsenal and Liverpool
“But that was one of only three Arsenal shots in the second period, all of which came in stoppage time. Arsenal had just 35 per cent of the possession after the break.
“Liverpool barely had to break a sweat defensively and will feel they should have won it themselves, with Frimpong creating a string of dangerous openings and Bradley hitting the bar in the first half.”
