Surprisingly, Liverpool manager Arne Slot offered a sympathetic view of the incident during his post-match duties. rather than condemning the Arsenal man, the Reds boss suggested that the prevailing culture of time-wasting in modern football was the root cause of the flared temper.
Slot admitted that while the action looked bad, he understood the frustration of an attacking player chasing a goal in stoppage time.
"I don't know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy," Slot 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."
The Dutch manager concluded that in the high-pressure environment of the 94th minute, rational thinking often goes out the window. "You cannot ask Martinelli to think so clear in the 94th minute," he added.