Liverpool criticize Martinelli, fear for Bradley injury

Liverpool manager Arne Slot said Gabriel Martinelli's push on an injured Conor Bradley in his team's 0-0 draw with Arsenal on Thursday "doesn't look great" and added that he feared for the extent of Bradley's injury.

The Liverpool defender went down off the ball with what looked like a knee injury in stoppage time at Emirates Stadium, with Martinelli attempting to shove him off the pitch as Arsenal looked for a late winner.

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Bradley was later stretchered off and appeared in considerable pain, with several Liverpool players taking exception to Martinelli's behavior.

"I don't know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy and I think the problem for him is, and it's a problem in general in football, is there's so much time-wasting and players pretending they're injured during the game, you can sometimes be annoyed if you want to score a goal and you think a player is time-wasting," Slot said in his news conference.

"I cannot ask Gabriel Martinelli in the 94th minute, when it's so emotional, for him to understand he plays Liverpool who are a team that don't go to the floor.

"I'm 100% sure that if he knew what the injury might be that he would never do that. But it doesn't look great if he has the injury we fear he might have, of course.

"But football, time-wasting, diving has come to the point that in the 94th minute players think that's probably happening again because I've seen it against us so many times this season."

Asked about the severity of Bradley's injury, Slot added: "I don't know yet, but it doesn't look great when you have to go off on a stretcher. I think when we see the video we probably both think the same, but we have to wait on the scans."

Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai also said there was no need for Martinelli's actions.

"I saw that Conor twisted his knee, I don't know what happened with him, obviously he didn't want to come back to the pitch for time-wasting, he was just in so much pain he couldn't even think where he rolled and Gabriel come there and push him off the pitch," he told Sky Sports.

"I understand you want to win, we want to win as well, but I think the health of a player is much more important than something else."

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta insisted Martinelli's actions were not malicious but said he would speak with the forward for further clarity.

"Knowing Gabi, if anybody knows Gabi, he's an incredible, lovely guy, and probably he didn't realize what happened," Arteta said.

"I hope that Conor is well, I will have a word with him now to understand that. But probably he didn't recognize what happened."

ESPN's James Olley contributed to this report.