Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has come in defense of his team-mates from any questions of their reaction to a show of disrespect from Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli.
Martinelli made headlines on Thursday night as Liverpool played out a 0-0 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. During the dying minutes of the match, the Arsenal winger sparked uproar in the Reds camp when attempting to drag injured Conor Bradley off the field.
An unsightly melee was sparked that featured players from both teams. Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate picked up a booking during the alterations while Martinelli was also booked.
Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai confront Gabriel Martinelli after he pushes Conor Bradley. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Martinelli has since apologised for his behaviour, with Bradley suffering a serious enough injury that he was forced to leave north London in a knee brace.
However, Van Dijk believes his teammates did nothing wrong.
Van Dijk told reporters afterwards: “Everyone was unhappy at that moment. It wasn’t a couple of players, but everyone, and rightly so because Conor was on the pitch and to be pushing him off the pitch is not really a good sight.
“It is pretty obvious for you guys to analyse it from clips. For us, it goes pretty quickly. The long ball came, Conor is challenging for it, falls down on the pitch and obviously Martinelli pushes him off the pitch and our players reacted.
Players react to Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli after he moved Liverpool’s Conor Bradley (not pictured) off the pitch. (Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
“We all came together. And we had no clue what really happened, but it doesn’t look great and it doesn’t look great on Martinelli either. We are focusing on Conor now. He will have medical tests coming up in the next 24 hours and we will have to adapt.”
With Bradley now set to be out for some weeks, Arne Slot will have to make some critical decision on his team set up in the next few games.
Liverpool are already without big-money strikers Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike, while Mohamed Salah another is on Africa Cup of Nations duty with the Egyptian national team.
Slot’s men will be back in action on Monday when facing League One outfit Barnsley in the FA Cup third round.
