Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk says the whole team was angry at Gabriel Martinelli's antics after Conor Bradley suffered what appears a serious knee injury vs Arsenal
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk reacts during the game with Arsenal
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk reacts during the game with Arsenal
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Virgil van Dijk admitted “everyone was unhappy” with Gabriel Martinelli after his bust-up with Conor Bradley.
Van Dijk was fuming after Arsenal forward Martinelli caused a storm by appearing to drag Bradley off the pitch even though it later emerged the Liverpool defender had suffered a serious knee injury.
Martinelli has subsequently publicly apologised, been in touch with Bradley to say sorry and also insisted that he “really didn’t understand” he was badly hurt.
Bradley, who left the game on crutches and in a knee brace, went down hurt and was clearly in agony but Martinelli tried to push him off the pitch which then caused a mass brawl at the end of Liverpool’s stalemate at Arsenal.
Liverpool captain Van Dijk said: “Everyone was unhappy at that moment. It wasn’t a couple of players, but everyone, and rightly so because Conor was on the pitch and to be pushing him off the pitch is not really a good sight.
“It is pretty obvious for you guys to analyse it from clips. For us, it goes pretty quickly. The long ball came, Conor is challenging for it, falls down on the pitch and obviously Martinelli pushes him off the pitch and our players reacted.
“We all came together. And we had no clue what really happened, but it doesn’t look great and it doesn’t look great on Martinelli either.
“We are focussing on Conor now. He will have medical tests coming up in the next 24 hours and we will have to adapt.”
Gabriel Martinelli of Arsenal tries to shove Conor Bradley of Liverpool off the pitch after he appeared to have suffered a serious injury
Gabriel Martinelli of Arsenal tries to shove Conor Bradley of Liverpool off the pitch after he appeared to have suffered a serious injury
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(Image: Javier Garcia/Shutterstock)
Liverpool ground out a hard fought point at Arsenal to extend their unbeaten run to ten games and Van Dijk admitted it was not aways pretty but says they executed an “outstanding” game plan.
He added: “Our thoughts are with Conor, first and foremost. Hopefully it is not the worst, but it doesn’t look great. Other than that, our game plan was outstanding in my opinion.
“We let their centre-backs have the ball because we felt like they wouldn’t be able to come up with an ID and that is why they didn’t create many chances against us.
“It doesn’t look great, but you can come out and try to go one v one and take the risk, but we all know a game is 90 minutes and at a certain point we would have the space to play and that is what happened in the second half.
Van Dijk hailed his side's performance after earning a point at the leaders
Van Dijk hailed his side's performance after earning a point at the leaders
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“We were outstanding with the ball. It felt like it could have been more than a point, but I am very proud of the guys against a team that is very much in form.
“No team can run and press for the full 90 minutes like they do in the first 20 to 30 minutes so we had to keep fighting and let them find an idea that they couldn’t, and we knew that they would get midfielders between the centre-backs to try and come up with something.
“The guys put a big shift in defensive work and then in the second half in possession we were outstanding and found the right players in between the lines.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t create big chances but with the players we have right now, missing two proper number nines, the guys still did outstanding, and we will take a point.”