Arsenal ace Gabriel Martinelli has been branded a ‘disgrace’ by Gary Neville after he was lucky to avoid a red card in a goalless draw with Liverpool. The winger was involved in a skirmish with Liverpool players in the closing stages after an incident with Conor Bradley, who was lying injured.
Martinelli first dropped the ball onto Bradley’s head, but then picked it up himself and attempted to move the right-back off the pitch. Liverpool players were furious at the move and referee Anthony Taylor handed Martinelli a yellow card.
After watching the incident unfold, Neville expressed outrage at Martinelli’s actions and suggested he was lucky to have remained on the pitch. Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville said: “You can’t take him off the pitch, you can’t do that. It’s too bad. I’m surprised one of the Liverpool players didn’t give him a proper punch. I think an apology is due. I’m angry at Martinelli. I don’t know how a Liverpool player could have gone and punched him and not gotten a red card. It’s a complete disgrace.”
Roy Keane echoed similar sentiments in his post-match debriefing, saying: “I didn’t like it at all. It happened to me once. I was seriously injured and the player was standing over me. It’s not good. We know football and the player is a good kid. I threw the ball to him, I stood over him and gave him a little knee bump. He tried to force him off.”
“That act is absolutely disgraceful. He’s a good kid to turn himself over. Hopefully Martinelli sees that and hopefully he apologizes for it. That’s not a good thing.”
Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta, who was booked for leaving the technical area multiple times, refused to condemn his players’ actions when asked about it after the final whistle. He told Sky Sports: “He probably doesn’t know and I don’t know what happened to Conor. Obviously Gabi has no intention of doing anything bad to him.”
Arsenal were able to play evenly, but they were unable to score the winning goal and the difference between them and the chasing team remained at 6 points. The Premier League will go on a nine-day break for the FA Cup third round, with matches to resume on January 17th.
