A rain-soaked Emirates Stadium played host to a drab 0-0 draw between Arsenal and Liverpool on Thursday night and tempers flared towards the end of the second half as Gabriel Martinelli pushed an evidently injured Conor Bradley off the pitch. Reds boss Arne Slot is being praised for his post-match reaction to said incident.

In what was a game of two halves, the Gunners suffocated Slot's men in the first half but were unable to convert any of their nine shots. The second period was much different: Liverpool looked much the better team but, again, no shots were converted.

          Key Statistic: Mikel Arteta remains winless against Arne Slot (D3 L1), with the Liverpool manager being the only opposing manager to avoid defeat in his first four games against the Arsenal boss.

The visitors, who retain their spot in fourth, would've walked away the much happier of the two sides. The Gunners, led by Mikel Arteta, may rue their missed chance of going eight points clear at the summit of the Premier League – but any sort of subplots were overshadowed by the clash between Martinelli and Bradley near the end of the encounter.

Conor Bradley Liverpool

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Slot's Post-Match Reaction to Martinelli Pushing Bradley

Arne Slot

Bradley, who was eventually replaced by Joe Gomez in Liverpool's only substitution on the night, went to ground in the fourth minute of injury time with what appeared a knee injury when challenging for possession with Arsenal's Martinelli, who first dropped the ball on the Northern Ireland international before trying to push him off the pitch.

He did so that play could resume sooner rather than later – but the Liverpool players were unhappy with the Brazilian's actions. Even Gary Neville – who was commentating on the match next to Peter Drury on Sky Sports – said: “I’m actually fuming with Martinelli. I don’t know how Liverpool players didn’t go over and absolutely whack him.”

Watch the incident between Martinelli and Bradley below:

Martinelli's thoughtless action sparked a melee between the two teams, with Martinelli and Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate both put into Anthony Taylor's book for their involvement. Slot, who is now awaiting to find out the extent of Bradley's injury, took a more measured approach.

"I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy," he said. "I think the problem for him is, and it’s a problem in general in football, that there is so much time-wasting and players pretending they are injured in the final parts of the game, that you can then sometimes be annoyed if you want to score a goal that you think the player is time-wasting.

gabriel martinelli ibrahima konate

“I cannot ask from Gabriel Martinelli in the 94th minute when it’s so emotional for him to understand he is playing Liverpool – a team when we played Leeds and a player was held but didn’t go to the floor, or played West Ham United and my players try to drag Paqueta out of a situation where he was getting a second yellow card.

“I’m 100% sure that if he knew what the injury might be that he would never do [what he did]. But it doesn’t look great if he (Bradley) has the injury which we fear he might have.

“But time-wasting and diving in football has come to the situation where players think in the 94th minute that it’s happening again, because I’ve seen it happen against us so many times this season," the 47-year-old Dutchman. "I can understand Martinelli might have thought this was time-wasting and didn’t think this was Liverpool.”

Slot Praised for Take on Martinelli-Bradley Incident

Arne Slot

Although Slot – widely regarded as one of the best managers in world football – took a relaxed approach to Martinelli's behaviour, Roy Keane agreed with his former 

teammate Neville. "I'm surprised the Liverpool players didn't go after Martinelli a bit more," he said before adding, "That behaviour is a disgrace. Not good scenes. Hopefully Martinelli will go over and apologise for it."