Gabriel Martinelli is unlikely to face any additional retrospective punishment from the FA following his shove on Conor Bradley during Arsenal's goalless draw with Liverpool. The Brazilian was seen pushing the full-back off the pitch after Bradley injured himself whilst clearing the ball unchallenged.
The Brazilian initially dropped the ball onto the defender before, upon seeing Bradley attempt to move back onto the pitch, shoving the player. Liverpool's squad reacted angrily to the incident, pushing the Arsenal winger away before referee Anthony Taylor eventually showed him a yellow card.
As Taylor witnessed the incident and issued a booking at the time, no retrospective punishment from the FA is expected, according to Football.London. The occurrence will have been documented in the referee's match report due to the caution being administered.
Following the match, Martinelli took to social media to apologise for his actions. The 24-year-old acknowledged that he had made contact with the Liverpool defender.
"I really didn't understand he was seriously injured in the heat of the moment," Martinelli wrote on Instagram. "I want to say I'm deeply sorry for reacting. Sending Conor all my best again for a quick recovery."
Liverpool boss Arne Slot also expressed understanding towards Martinelli after the final whistle. He maintained empathy for the Arsenal player, pointing to the increasing problem of time-wasting in football as the reason behind the heated reaction.
"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."
Mikel Arteta indicated he would address the matter with the player whilst emphasising Martinelli's character. He suggested the player was unlikely to have grasped the seriousness of the incident.
"Knowing Gabi, if anybody knows Gabi, he's an incredible, lovely guy, and probably he didn't realise what happened, I hope that Conor as well, I will have a word with him now to understand that, but probably he didn't recognise what happened," he added.