Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has slammed Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli for pushing Conor Bradley when he was down injured. He admitted that the players were confused what had happened to the right-back, but added that the Brazilian's reaction was not ideal.
Speaking to the club's media team, Van Dijk said that the Liverpool players were frustrated with the reaction and wanted to protect their defender. He is hoping that the injury is not serious after the right-back was stretchered off the pitch at the Emirates. He said (via Football London)
"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. Our thoughts are with Conor, first and foremost. Hopefully it is not the worst, but it doesn't look great."
Bradley cleared the ball in the final minutes of the game and went down unchallenged. The Liverpool star was on the edge of the pitch, and Martinelli tried to push him off to try to restart the game quickly.
The Brazilian has since apologized for his mistake and will not be facing any action from The FA.
Virgil van Dijk happy with Liverpool's performance against Arsenal
Liverpool held Arsenal to a goalless draw at the Emirates and the defender admitted that he was happy with the performance. He said that the players executed the game plan to perfection by letting the Gunners' defenders keep the ball and said:
"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."
Liverpool are 14 points behind leaders Arsenal after 21 league matches. The Gunners sit six points clear of Manchester City and Aston Villa, who sit second and third in the table.