After first dropping the ball onto the prone defender, Arsenal\u2019s No. 11 took the unwise step of attempting to shove him off the pitch in an effort to get the match quickly restarted. All that achieved was sparking a mass brawl which delayed the contest even further.<\/p>\n
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Liverpool<\/a>\u2019s players were quite understandably incensed at Martinelli\u2019s flagrant disregard for their stricken teammate, who had to be stretchered off the pitch as it became rapidly apparent that there was no playacting involved.<\/p>\n Bradley was spotted on crutches with his left knee in a brace as he left the stadium. Slot was in no position to give any concrete diagnosis on the Northern Ireland international, but warned that it \u201cdoesn\u2019t look good.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to wait on the scans if it\u2019s that bad,\u201d Slot acknowledged. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t look great if Conor has the injury which we fear he might have.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the Dutch boss took a generous view on the villain of the piece. <\/p>\n Gabriel Martinelli caused plenty of outrage. \/ Marc Atkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy,\u201d the remarkably level-headed Liverpool manager noted.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 100% sure that if he knew what the injury might be, that he would never do that,\u201d Slot insisted. \u201cI think the problem for him\u2014and it\u2019s a problem in general in football\u2014is 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.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot ask Martinelli to think so clear in the 94th minute.\u201d<\/p>\n When he was given the chance to compose himself after the fury of the contest, Martinelli revealed on social media that he had promptly reached out to Bradley. <\/p>\n \u201cConor and I have messaged and I have already apologised to him,\u201d Martinelli wrote on Instagram. \u201cI really didn\u2019t understand he was seriously injured in the heat of the moment. I want to say I\u2019m deeply sorry for reacting.<\/p>\n \u201cSending Conor all my best again for a quick recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n Arsenal<\/a>\u2019s Mikel Arteta was also quick to add his own character reference for the 24-year-old. \u201cKnowing Gabi, if anybody knows Gabi, it\u2019s an incredibly lovely guy and probably he didn\u2019t realise what happened,\u201d the Basque boss declared. \u201cI hope that Conor is well. I will have a word with him now to understand that, but probably he didn\u2019t recognise what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Fans expected more from this one but it was too cagey. \/ Marc Atkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n While the figures on the touchline were able to calmly accept Martinelli\u2019s failings, that same sense of composure was not replicated elsewhere.<\/p>\n Sky Sports commentator Gary Neville was the first to offer his immediate reaction, labelling the Arsenal winger an \u201cidiot\u201d for his actions which, to his mind, warranted rough justice. \u201cI am actually fuming with Martinelli, I don\u2019t know how the Liverpool players didn\u2019t go over and absolutely whack him to be honest with you and take a red card. Absolutely disgraceful, that,\u201d he seethed.<\/p>\n Roy Keane, in his capacity as a pundit for the same broadcasters, likened the scene to when Alf-Inge Haaland (father of Erling) loomed over him after committing a challenge which left him with a very serious knee injury. \u201cI didn\u2019t like it,\u201d the former Manchester United<\/a> captain said of the Martinelli incident. \u201cIt happened to me when I was badly injured and a player stood over me, and it\u2019s not good.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all throwing the ball at him, and he puts a little knee in him to try to force him off. I\u2019m surprised the Liverpool players didn\u2019t react to Martinelli more. I think that behaviour is an absolute disgrace. Not good scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n READ THE LATEST PREMIER LEAGUE NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS AND GOSSIP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The revelation that Liverpool manager Arne Slot is \u201cfearing the worst\u201d for Conor Bradley following a nasty twist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-398438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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