Gabriel Martinelli has broken his silence after being involved in an altercation with Liverpool's injured defender Conor Bradley on Thursday night
Players react to Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli after he moved Liverpool's Conor Bradley (not pictured) off the pitch
Liverpool players weren't happy with Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli after he tried pushing Conor Bradley off the pitch
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Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli has apologised for trying to force injured Liverpool defender Conor Bradley off the pitch in Thursday night's 0-0 draw at the Emirates Stadium. The right-back stayed down in injury time after landing awkwardly.
Bradley was chasing the ball and seemed to injure his knee when clearing any danger near the touchline. He immediately clutched his knee as he fell to the ground to delay Arsenal's restart of play.
After being stopped from taking the throw-in, Martinelli dropped the ball to the full-back before protesting against the Northern Ireland international. He then shoved him in the back to get him off the pitch to allow play to restart.
Ibrahima Konate was booked for his involvement in a melee between the two sides, with Martinelli also being shown a yellow card. Bradley was later stretched off after seeming to suffer a serious injury.
Following the game, Martinelli has taken to social media to apologise to Bradley and wish him the best in his recovery. "Conor and I have messaged and I've already apologised to him," he wrote on his Instagram story.
"I really didn't understand he was seriously injured in the heat of the moment. I want to say I'm deeply sorry for reaction. Sending Conor all my best again for a quick recovery."
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane branded Martinelli "a disgrace" during Sky Sports' coverage of the Premier League clash. "It's not good. We know football, the player is a good lad," he said.
"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."
Liverpool boss Arne Slot defended Martinelli's actions in his post-match press conference. "I don't know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy," he said.
"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.
Conor Bradley is stretchered off
Conor Bradley was stretchered off in injury-time at the Emirates Stadium
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"You cannot ask Martinelli to think so clear in the 94th minute." On Bradley's injury, Slot added: "I am 100% sure that if he knew what the injury might be, then he would never do that.
"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 that." Martinelli's boss, Mikel Arteta also defended the Brazilian, insisting that the forward had no bad intention.
"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."
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