With Liverpool and Arsenal a scoreless draw heading into stoppage time and the Gunners pushing into the attacking third in search of a winner, Liverpool’s Conor Bradley suffered a potentially serious knee injury that resulted in him leaving the pitch on a stretcher. He is expected to be sidelined for a significant time.
The situation was potentially made worse by Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli, a player himself notorious for time wasting and feigning injury—earlier in the game Martinelli had stayed
down for over a minute holding his face after a Liverpool defender made contact with his mid-section—who reacted as if Bradley was faking it.
Martinelli lashed out, throwing the ball at Bradley, putting his hands on his face and neck, making significant exacerbating contact to his injured knee, and trying variously to pull and push Bradley off of the pitch so play could be restarted. Martinelli received only a yellow. He is not expected to face further punishment.
That’s the latest based on widespread reports the day following the incident, with match official Anthony Taylor reportedly communicating that he had in fact witnessed Martinelli’s actions clearly, meaning there would be no grounds for the FA to seek to re-litigate the Arsenal player’s petulant and unsportsmanlike outburst.
While pundits were quick to criticise Martinelli, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Liverpool manager Arne Slot both seemed eager to put the incident behind them, with Arteta suggesting that Martinelli “didn’t realise what happened” while Slot said, “I can understand Martinelli might have thought it this was time-wasting.”
