Slot defends Martinelli following Bradley injury


Arne Slot and Mikel Arteta defended Gabriel Martinelli after the Arsenal striker sparked a skirmish while trying to take an injured Conor Bradley off the pitch – but Dominik Szoboszlai, Roy Keane and Daniel Sturridge were more critical of the controversial incident.

Knowing victory would put the leaders eight points clear, Martinelli attempted to push the prone Reds defender off the field during second-half injury time in the 0-0 draw at the Emirates Stadium, with the Northern Ireland captain injured and requiring a stretcher to leave the field with a knee problem.

“I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli but he seems like a nice guy,” Slot said, arguing that cheating hurts the game.

“The problem for him – and it’s a problem in general in football – is that there is so much time wasting and players pretending to be injured in the last part of the match that you can sometimes get annoyed, if you want to score a goal, [when] you think a player is wasting time.

“The football, the time wasting, the diving has got to a situation where the players think, in the 94th minute, that it happened again – because I’ve seen it happen against us so many times this season that I can understand that Martinelli might have thought it was a waste of time too.”

Gabriel Martinelli: ‘No intention’ regarding Conor Bradley

Arteta, whose side are six points clear of Manchester City and Aston Villa after 21 games of the season, said Martinelli “probably didn’t” realize the extent of the damage done to Bradley, who was replaced by Joe Gomez.

“Knowing Gabi, it’s not intentional,” Arteta told Sky Sports. “I don’t know what happened to Conor – I hope it’s nothing bad – but Gabi has no intention of doing anything bad to him.”

Former Reds striker Sturridge was less forgiving. “I can see that maybe [Martinelli’s] thought [Bradley’s] a waste of time, but you have to be self-aware enough to know “okay, cool, the guy’s down.” This is just plain disrespectful – probably even worse than disrespectful.

Seven-time Premier League winner Keane described Martinelli’s behavior as “a bad thing”. “We could say [Bradley] was injured,” added the Manchester United legend.

“He’s not the type of kid to [over-react]. If you stand over him, you don’t know what the player’s injury is. It looked pretty bad [and] he tries to run him off the field.

Arsenal vs Liverpool: Bradley injury ‘hurts so much’

Szoboszlai stressed that Bradley did not try to stay on the pitch to slow down the game as Liverpool earned a draw that many did not expect against opponents 14 points above them.

“I saw that Conor twisted his knee,” said the Hungarian playmaker. “He was in so much pain he couldn’t even think where he had rolled.

“I understand [Martinelli] wants to win – we want to win too – but a player’s health is much more important.

Slot named Leeds United as one of the teams to have tested the limits of the rules against them and accused West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta of “trying everything” to get a second booking for one of his players.

“I can’t ask Gabriel Martinelli – in the 94th minute, when it’s so moving – to understand that he’s playing [against] Liverpool,” he suggested, explaining how his team is committed to fairness.

“You can’t expect Martinelli to think so clearly in the 94th minute. I’m 100% sure that, if he knew what the injury could be, he would never do that.

“But it doesn’t look great if [Bradley] has the injury we fear he might have, if you have to leave on a stretcher. We have to wait for the scans. Maybe he can play on Monday [at home to Barnsley in the FA Cup] – let’s hope so.

Arsenal vs Liverpool: Premier League stalemate

Visiting full-back Bradley came closest to breaking the deadlock in spectacular fashion, firing against the crossbar from distance during the first half after Gunners goalkeeper David Raya met a rushed back pass from William Saliba by playing the ball straight to him.

Liverpool capitalized further on the momentum after the restart, with a penalty appeal turned down by a video assistant referee review for Leandro Trossard’s challenge on Florian Wirtz.

Arsenal are next in action at Second Division Portsmouth in the FA Cup third round on Sunday (2:00 p.m. GMT). Liverpool will host Third Division side Tykes at the same stage of the competition the following day (7:45 p.m.).

You can relive 101GreatGoals.com live updates between Arsenal and Liverpool in the Premier League. here.

Arsenal team against Liverpool

Winger Max Dowman and defender Cristhian Mosquera (both ankle injuries) remained out for Arsenal, as did full-back Riccardo Calafiori with an unspecified problem.

Striker Kai Havertz had been ruled out of the 3-2 win at Bournemouth four days earlier for load management reasons, but started this time, as did Bukayo Saka.

Martinelli and Noni Madueke joined the bench.

Arsenal starting lineup: David Raya, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Piero Hincapie, Martin Odegaard, Martín Zubensedi, Declan Rice, Bukayo foot, Viktor Gyokeres, Leandro Trossard

Arsenal substitutes: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Ben White, Gabriel Jesus, Eberechi Eze, Gabriel Martinelli, Christian Norgaard, Noni Madueke, Mikel Merino, Myles Lewis-Skelly

Liverpool team against Arsenal

Jérémie Frimpong replaced Curtis Jones for Liverpool. Midfielder Wataru Endo was injured and striker Alexander Isak suffered a broken leg.

Defender Giovanni Leoni was dealing with a long-term knee injury and striker Mohamed Salah was playing in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt.

Liverpool starting XI: Alisson Becker, Conor Bradley, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz, Cody Gakpo

Liverpool substitutes: Giorgi Mamardashvili, Joe Gomez, Federico Chiesa, Curtis Jones, Andy Robertson, Freddie Woodman, Trey Nyoni, Calvin Ramsay, Rio Ngumoha

Arsenal vs Liverpool Stats

  • Arsenal had won their previous two Premier League home matches against the reigning champions, beating City in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
  • They failed to achieve this feat in three consecutive seasons in the Championship, as they did between 1961/62 and 1963/64, when they beat Spurs, Ipswich and Everton.
  • Bukayo Saka failed to become the first Arsenal player to score in four consecutive home games against the Reds.
  • Arsenal kept a clean sheet for the first time in 21 Premier League games against Liverpool and for the first time since a 0-0 draw in August 2015.
  • Only against Man Utd (30 between 1953 and 1968) and Tottenham (24 between 1955 and 1967) have they had a longer clean run in their league history.
  • This was the first ever Premier League match between Arsenal and Liverpool on a Thursday, their last league meeting on Thursday having taken place at Anfield in December 1947 (3–1 victory for Arsenal).
  • Liverpool are the second team Arsenal face seven days a week in the Premier League after Southampton.
  • Arsenal had won their previous seven Premier League home matches – only once under Mikel Arteta had they enjoyed a longer home league winning streak, winning 10 in a row between April and December 2022.
  • Against no side has Arsenal lost more Premier League matches only against Liverpool (26, tied with Manchester United)
  • Liverpool failed to complete the Premier League double against Arsenal for the eighth time, and the first since 2021/22. Their seven “doubles” are the most any team has been able to achieve against the Gunners in the competition.





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