Liverpool\u2019s trip to north London produced a moment that lingered long after the final whistle and ultimately overshadowed what had been a composed 0-0 draw.<\/p>\n
Rather than the result, the focus shifted to Conor Bradley after a late stoppage-time incident involving Arsenal winger Gabriel Martinelli raised immediate concern.<\/p>\n
The Northern Ireland international went down injured near the touchline and was clearly in pain, yet was pushed towards the sideline by the Brazilian as Arsenal tried to restart play. The reaction was instant, with tempers flaring and several Liverpool players rushing to defend their teammate. Dominik Szoboszlai was among those who took particular issue with the treatment of the 22-year-old while he lay on the turf.<\/p>\n
Martinelli issues apology after Bradley scare
\nHours after the match, Martinelli addressed the flashpoint publicly on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cConor and I have spoken and I\u2019ve already apologised to him,\u201d the Arsenal forward wrote.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t realise how serious the injury was in the heat of the moment, and I\u2019m truly sorry for how I reacted.
\nWishing Conor a speedy recovery once again.\u201d<\/p>\n
His message followed visible concern from Arne Slot on the touchline, with the Liverpool head coach later admitting he feared the worst when discussing Bradley\u2019s condition after the game.<\/p>\n
Slot explained that when one of his players goes down, \u201cthere\u2019s something wrong 100 out of 100 times,\u201d highlighting just how unnecessary the shove appeared in that moment.<\/p>\n
Why the incident still resonates
\nBradley has already endured several injury setbacks this season, making the timing of the clash particularly worrying as Liverpool\u2019s schedule continues to intensify.
\nSzoboszlai\u2019s swift intervention also stood out, encapsulating the togetherness and protective spirit within Slot\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n
While Martinelli\u2019s apology has been acknowledged, Liverpool\u2019s main concern remains Bradley\u2019s fitness, with further updates expected in the coming days. Publicly, the matter may now be closed, but the unease it caused still hangs heavily on Liverpool\u2019s side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool\u2019s trip to north London produced a moment that lingered long after the final whistle and ultimately overshadowed what had been a composed 0-0 draw. Rather than the result, the focus shifted to Conor Bradley after a late stoppage-time incident involving Arsenal winger Gabriel Martinelli raised immediate concern. The Northern Ireland international went down injured …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":57452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/EOTK-FeaturedHero-Image-Templates-2-6.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57454,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57451\/revisions\/57454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}