Sports
Slot defends Martinelli over Bradley injury
Arne Slot and Mikel Arteta have defended Gabriel Martinelli after the Arsenal forward sparked a skirmish by trying to roll an injured Conor Bradley off the pitch – but Dominik Szoboszlai, Roy Keane and Daniel Sturridge were more critical over the controversial incident.
Knowing victory would move the leaders eight points clear, Martinelli tried to push the prone Reds defender off the pitch during second-half added time in the 0-0 draw at the Emirates Stadium, with the Northern Ireland captain down hurt and requiring a stretcher to leave the turf because of a knee problem.
“I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli but he comes across as a nice guy,” Slot said, claiming that cheating is damaging 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 they are injured in the final part of games that you can sometimes be annoyed, if you want to score a goal, [when] you think a player is time-wasting.
“Football, time-wasting, diving has come to the situation where players think, in the 94th minute, that that has happened again – because I have seen it happen against us so many times this season that I can understand Martinelli might have thought this was time-wasting as well.”
“I hope Martinelli has gone into the dressing room and apologised”
Gary Neville hopes Gabriel Martinelli will have apologised to Connor Bradley. pic.twitter.com/ZDPQKXAij0
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 8, 2026
Gabriel Martinelli: ‘No intention’ over Conor Bradley
Arteta, whose side are six points above Manchester City and Aston Villa after 21 games of the season, said Martinelli “probably didn’t” realise the extent of the damage 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 – hopefully it’s nothing bad – but there’s no intention from Gabi to do anything bad to him.”
Former Reds striker Sturridge was less forgiving. “I can see that maybe [Martinelli’s] thinking [Bradley’s] time-wasting, but you’ve got to be self-aware enough to know ‘okay, cool – the guy’s down’. It’s just disrespectful – probably even worse than disrespectful.”
Seven-time Premier League winner Keane described Martinelli’s behaviour as “not good stuff”. “You could tell [Bradley] was injured,” added the Manchester United legend.
“He’s not the type of kid to [over-react]. If you’re standing over him, you don’t know the injury the player’s got. It looked pretty bad [and] he’s trying to put him off the pitch.”
👏❤️ pic.twitter.com/NUVOT3mnAX
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 8, 2026
Arsenal vs Liverpool: Bradley injury ‘so much pain’
Szoboszlai emphasised that Bradley had not been trying to stay on the pitch to slow the game down as Liverpool secured a draw many had not expected against opponents 14 points above them.
“I saw that Conor twisted his knee,” said the Hungary playmaker. “He just had so much pain that he couldn’t even think where he rolled.
“I understand [Martinelli] wants to win – we want to win as well – but the health of a player is much more important.”
Slot named Leeds United as one of the teams to have tested the boundaries of the rules against them and accused West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta of “trying everything” to earn a second booking for one of his players.
“I cannot ask Gabriel Martinelli – in the 94th minute, when it’s so emotional – to understand that he plays [against] Liverpool,” he suggested, explaining how his squad are committed to fairness.
“You cannot expect, from Martinelli, that he thinks so clearly in the 94th minute. I’m 100% sure that, if he knew what the injury might 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 go off on a stretcher. We have to wait on the scans. Maybe he can play on Monday [at home to Barnsley in the FA Cup] – let’s hope so.”
Liverpool so close to taking the lead!
Conor Bradley’s effort CRASHES against the crossbar! 💥 pic.twitter.com/ylmgvHplPs
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 8, 2026
Arsenal vs Liverpool: Premier League stalemate
Visiting full-back Bradley went closest to breaking the deadlock in spectacular style, shooting against the crossbar from distance during the first half after Gunners goalkeeper David Raya met a rushed backpass from William Saliba by playing the ball straight to him.
Liverpool seized more of the momentum after the restart, having a penalty appeal dismissed by a Video Assistant Referee check for Leandro Trossard’s challenge on Florian Wirtz.
Arsenal are next in action at second-tier Portsmouth in the FA Cup third round on Sunday (14:00 GMT). Liverpool host the third-tier Tykes at the same stage of the competition the following day (19:45).
You can relive 101GreatGoals.com’s live updates from Arsenal vs Liverpool in the Premier League here.
Arsenal team vs Liverpool
Winger Max Dowman and defender Cristhian Mosquera (both ankle) remained out for Arsenal, as did full-back Riccardo Calafiori with an unspecified issue.
Forward Kai Havertz had been left out of the 3-2 win at Bournemouth four days earlier for load management purposes but started this time, as did Bukayo Saka.
Martinelli and Noni Madueke moved to the bench.
Arsenal starting XI: David Raya, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Piero Hincapie, Martin Odegaard, Martín Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, 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
Not to be this time for Dominik Szoboszlai! ❌ pic.twitter.com/IT3LgS2kbY
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 8, 2026
Liverpool team vs Arsenal
Jeremie Frimpong replaced Curtis Jones for Liverpool. Midfielder Wataru Endo was injured and striker Alexander Isak had a broken leg.
Defender Giovanni Leoni had a long-term knee injury and forward Mohamed Salah was at 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 home Premier League matches against the reigning champions, beating City in both 2023/24 and 2024/25
- They failed to achieve the feat in three consecutive league seasons, as they had done between 1961/62 and 1963/64, when they beat Spurs, Ipswich and Everton
- Bukayo Saka missed out on becoming the first Arsenal player to scored 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 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) had they had a longer run without a clean sheet in their league history
- This was the first-ever Premier League game between Arsenal and Liverpool on a Thursday, with their last Thursday league meeting coming at Anfield in December 1947 (3-1 win for Arsenal)
- Liverpool are the second team Arsenal have faced on all seven days of the week in the Premier League after Southampton
- Arsenal had won their previous seven home Premier League matches – only once under Mikel Arteta had they had a longer home league winning run, winning 10 consecutively between April and December 2022
- Against no side have Arsenal lost more Premier League games than they have against Liverpool (26, level with Manchester United)
- Liverpool missed out on completing the Premier League double over Arsenal for the eighth time, and first since 2021/22. Their seven ‘doubles’ is the most any side has against the Gunners in the competition
