Gabriel Martinelli: Arsenal forward’s push on Conor Bradley criticised by Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Daniel Sturridge | Football News

Gary Neville has blasted Gabriel Martinelli’s “disgraceful” behavior after the Arsenal winger attempted to push Conor Bradley off the pitch while he was down after suffering what appeared to be a serious injury during Arsenal’s goalless draw with Liverpool.

Martinelli’s push on Bradley sparked a furious reaction from Liverpool players and staff. The Arsenal striker also dropped the ball to the full-back, who was stretched.

Speaking immediately after the incident, Sky Sports’ Gary Neville said in commentary: “You can’t push him off the pitch! You can’t do that. It’s so poor. I think an apology is needed.

“Bradley is on a stretcher. I’m angry with Martinelli to be honest. It’s shameful.”

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta defended Martinelli, saying the winger was unaware of the seriousness of Bradley’s injury.

“Gabi is an amazing, lovely guy and he probably didn’t realize what happened,” he said during his press conference.

“I hope Conor is okay. I’m going to talk to him now to figure this out. But he probably hasn’t recognized what happened.”

After the match, Roy Keane added: “It’s not good. We know football, the player is a good boy.

“Throw the ball to him, stand over him and put a little knee on him. He tries to force him to go.

“This behavior is an absolute disgrace. It’s a good boy to turn around. I hope Martinelli takes a look at it and I hope he apologizes for it. It’s not a good thing.”

Daniel Sturridge added: “It’s disappointing to see. There’s passion and there’s being a winner, there’s wanting to help your teammates, but you have to be respectful as a footballer.

“Injuries are never a good feeling. Martinelli thinks he’s wasting time, but you have to be self-aware enough to see the guy is down. You’ve been there before.

“It’s disrespectful. It’s probably worse than disrespectful.”

Bradley came closest to scoring in the goalless contest, hitting the bar after a defensive mix-up from the Gunners.

Arteta: No intention to harm Bradley

Speaking to Sky Sports, Arteta added that there would have been “no intention” on Martinelli’s part to harm Bradley.

“He probably doesn’t know (that Bradley was injured),” Arteta said.

“I don’t know what happened to Conor but I hope he’s okay. But obviously Gabi has no intention of hurting him.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Arteta added: “Knowing Gabi, if anyone knows Gabi, he’s an incredible, lovely guy, and he probably didn’t realize what happened.

“I’m going to talk to him now to figure this out, but he probably didn’t recognize what happened.”

Slot: I fear the worst for Bradley

Liverpool boss Arne Slot said after the match that he feared “the worst” for Bradley, who has already missed significant time this season through injury.

“I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli but he seems like a nice guy,” Slot said.

“The problem for him, and it’s a problem in general in football, is that there is so much wasting of time in the latter parts of the matches that sometimes you can get annoyed when you want to score a goal and you have the impression that a player is pretending to be injured.

“I’m 100 percent sure if he knew what the injury might be, he wouldn’t do that. But it doesn’t look great if he has the injury, which we fear he might have, of course.

“The football, the time wasting, the diving has got to a situation where the players think in the 94th minute that it will probably happen again, because I have seen it happen against us so many times this season.

“I can understand why Martinelli might have thought it was also a waste of time.”

“The title is far from a formality for lackluster Arsenal”

Aerial sports Nick Wright at the Emirates Stadium:

Arsenal are six points ahead. A goalless draw against Liverpool is far from disastrous. But this title is far from a formality if they play as poorly as in the second half.

Manchester City’s failure to beat Brighton had given Mikel Arteta’s side the chance to go eight points ahead, but that never looked particularly likely on a frustrating evening for the hosts at a wet and windy Emirates Stadium.

There were at least moments of promise for them in the first half, but Liverpool defended resolutely and continued to do so after half-time, when Arsenal’s modest attacking threat diminished further and the visitors managed to dominate possession.

It was uncharacteristic, especially since Arsenal had scored a string of goals within 15 minutes of half-time in recent games. But this time, the assault never took place.

They almost snatched it with a header from Gabriel at the end. The defender found himself with his head in his hands. But it was one of only three Arsenal shots in the second half, all coming in stoppage time. Liverpool fully deserved their point.