Half brilliant, half senseless. Emmanuel Adebayor will have ample time to ponder the destructive side of his personality when he watches the Manchester derby from the Old Trafford stands on Sunday.
Having relegated the story of Manchester City’s victory over Arsenal to a postscript with his reckless behaviour against his former employers, the inevitability of Football Association punishment will surely see Adebayor suspended for the forthcoming trip to Old Trafford.
But that is perhaps just as well for Mark Hughes and his team. Adebayor, despite his four goals in four Premier League games for City, could be a liability in the tinderbox atmosphere of derby day.
Ian Watmore, the FA chief executive, has done little to suggest that the Togolese will escape censure for a spiteful foul on Robin van Persie, which preceded his inflammatory goal celebration in front of the visiting supporters that sparked unrest in the away end.
Watmore said: “Our governance team will definitely look at both of the incidents that have been highlighted. The punishments are the decisions of individual commissions, if we get that far, so let’s just look at the facts in the cold light of day on Monday morning. I was pretty unimpressed because the problem between Arsenal fans and Adebayor is well documented. He ran the whole length of the field to celebrate.”
Adebayor’s temperament, which proved flawed during his closing months as an Arsenal player, failed the test once more when he should instead have allowed his undoubted football talents to make his point against his detractors. But the Togolese was on a mission. Apparently 'unloved’ by his former club, Adebayor certainly made his mark, but apart from a stunning headed goal, the imprint he left behind was formed by brutality and incendiary self-indulgence.
Having gone unpunished by referee Mark Clattenburg for raking his studs down the cheek of Van Persie, Adebayor’s case will not be helped by video evidence of his challenge. Van Persie summed it up perfectly by condemning Adebayor for his 'mindless and malicious stamp.’
“I, too, have made hard and sometimes mistimed challenges,” Van Persie continued. “But never with the intention of hurting an opponent. He set out to hurt me. I feel lucky that I have not suffered a greater injury. The contact was only centimetres from my eye.”
Had Clattenburg witnessed the incident, the official would have been hard pushed not to issue a red card, but then that would only have denied Adebayor his next moment of madness; the sprint from one end of the pitch to the other to celebrate his goal in front of the seething Arsenal supporters.
The visiting fans should not have pelted their former player with missiles, and those who charged down the terrace steps to confront Adebayor were idiotic. But they would not have done so had the City forward celebrated at the end of the pitch where he had converted his header from Shaun Wright-Phillips’s cross.
Clattenburg issued a yellow card for the celebration, which led to one steward being knocked out and taken to hospital by a missile thrown by the baying Arsenal supporters.
Adebayor had gone into the game having dredged up his bad feeling towards certain former Arsenal team-mates and it seemed as though proving a point was his only motivation. Adebayor said: “Before the game, people were saying things about me and writing about me. The emotion took over and I have to say sorry, but when you are on the pitch and score a goal, you cannot control yourself. I am very sorry for my celebration.
“I knew it was going to be tough because I was playing against my old team-mates. William [Gallas] is like a brother, we have been to each other’s houses, but he tried to kick me as well. On the pitch, there are no friends.”
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, while conceding that Adebayor’s behaviour displayed a lack of respect towards his former club, suggested that his time at the Emirates was actually the making of the player.
Wenger said: “At Arsenal, we tried to treat him well. He came from Metz, where he did not play, and now he is the player he is. I do not feel we treated him badly.”
Adebayor the player certainly proved pivotal in Arsenal’s downfall, with his pace and physical presence rattling the visitors’ back four.
A first-half own goal by goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, who unwittingly headed Micah Richards’s header into the net, gave City a half-time lead, but Arsenal deservedly levelled through Van Persie on 63 minutes.
Arsenal then had the momentum, with Shay Given twice brilliantly denying Wenger’s team the lead. But Craig Bellamy restored City’s advantage with a breakaway goal after 74 minutes before Adebayor made it 3-1.
A Wright-Phillips goal, followed by Tomas Rosicky’s late effort, completed the scoring, but while City extended their 100 per cent record, the storm clouds are gathering.
A stress fracture to the ankle will sideline Robinho for three weeks and Carlos Tévez remains a doubt for a return to Old Trafford on Sunday. Roque Santa Cruz is a fortnight away from full fitness.
If Adebayor earns a suspension as a result of his indiscretions, City could be without more than £100 million of attacking talent against United.