Can Gabriel Martinelli be banned for Conor Bradley incident after Arsenal vs. Liverpool outrage?

Gabriel Martinelli could face action from the FA following his conduct in Thursday's 0-0 draw against Liverpool, after the Arsenal winger shoved an injured Conor Bradley

Gabriel Martinelli was furious after Conor Bradley went down injured(Image: 2026 Marc Atkins)

Outraged fans have called for Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli to be banned after showing injured Liverpool defender Conor Bradley, and the Football Association could take action.

Martinelli sparked a brawl with seconds remaining in Arsenal's 0-0 draw against Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium, after throwing the ball at Bradley and shoving him off the field. Bradley later left the field on a stretcher after suffering a knee injury.

Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta defended Martinelli after the game, claiming that the player was unaware of the injury and assumed that Bradley was using time-wasting tactics. Martinelli was booked for his conduct, but the FA could take further action if they deem his behaviour unacceptable.

According to the FA rulebook, players guilty of violent conduct or involved in off-the-ball incidents will be punished retrospectively even if match officials saw the incident. The FA can take retrospective action for violent conduct and off-the-ball incidents regardless of whether they are seen by match officials.

Previously, if incidents on the field were missed, the FA would only intervene if an offense carried serious consequences. However, in 2013, the FA announced it had tightened its retrospective punishment ruling.

The FA could take action against Martinelli for throwing the ball at Bradley, or for shoving him off the field despite suffering a potentially serious injury. However, both Arteta and Liverpool head coach Arne Slot have attempted to understand Martinelli's perspective.

Liverpool players retaliated after Martinelli shoved Bradley(Image: 2026 Marc Atkins)

"Probably he doesn't know because knowing Gabi, there is zero intention," Arteta said. "I don't know what happened to Conor, but hopefully it's not bad, but obviously, there is no intention from Gabi to do anything bad to him."

Slot also admitted that Martinelli likely didn't realize that Bradley was seriously injured. "I don't know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy," Slot said.

"The problem for him, and it's a problem in general in football, is that there is so much time-wasting in the final parts of games that sometimes you can be annoyed when you want to score a goal and you feel a player is pretending to be injured.

Bradley left the field on a stretcher after suffering a knee injury(Image: 2026 Liverpool FC)

"I'm 100 percent sure if he knew what the injury might be, he wouldn't do that."

Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboslai was near Bradley and Martinelli when the incident occurred, and said it was clear that his teammate was in distress. Szoboszlai rushed to Bradley's defense after the push, but offered a more level-headed response after the game.

"I saw that Conor twisted his knee, I don't know what happened with him, obviously he didn't want to come back to the pitch for time-wasting," he said. "He was just in so much pain he couldn't even think where he rolled and Gabriel come there and push him off the pitch.

"I understand you want to win, we want to win as well, but I think the health of a player is much more important than something else."