Adebayor banned by the FA for three matches

Manchester City's Emmanuel Adebayor was banned for three games by the Football Asociation yesterday for violent conduct, a sanction that will see the striker miss the weekend's derby away to Manchester United. Mark Hughes' side will be without four forwards as Robinho and Roque Santa Cruz are out injured, and the former Old Trafford player Carlos Tevez is unlikely to figure in what is expected to be a hotly contested fixture.

Adebayor's ban is for the stamp that he committed against his former teammate Robin van Persie in last Saturday's game against Arsenal at Eastlands, and the Manchester City player was suitably contrite yesterday: "I am sorry Robin got hurt but I can't regret something I did not mean to do," he said.

"Anybody who knows me knows I would not set out to hurt anybody and I would especially not mean to hurt an old team-mate. I really am glad Robin was OK because I know my stud was close to his eye, but there was really nothing I could have done - there was no way I could have got out of the way in time."

The striker's protestations cut no ice with his former Arsenal colleagues, who remain outraged at Adebayor's conduct throughout the game - an FA charge for improper conduct remains to be resolved after the striker ran the length of the pitch to provocatively celebrate scoring the third goal in Saturday's 4-2 win in front of the travelling Gunners fans. This antagonistic gesture caused mayhem in the away end, with missiles being thrown onto the pitch, one of which knocked out a steward.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas yesterday questioned why Adebayor had escaped censure for a challenge on him which left the Spanish midfielder with a three-inch gash on his calf: "I think this is a red card here. I was lucky my foot was in the air when it happened," he told journalists yesterday. "It is a bit strange. It is football and we don't think about him any more. I have no idea [why it happened]. We always respected him, you know. You have to ask him that. I don’t really know."

Another Gunners player, Emmanuel Eboue, said the sanction for raking his studs down van Persie's face was deserved, as it had been a "bad thing to do. For me, I think, Adebayor, he didn’t do well. You have a lot of young people who watch the game. Then they see that and it's no good for football. But I am happy because the FA gave him a three-game ban. I think he will think about that and he will take it on. Now, he will try to play his game because that was no good for football. I am very disappointed about it."

Adebayor appeared to strike a defiant note about the improper conduct charge still hanging over him, saying: "If you were to abuse a man in the street for over an hour he would react and it would be a worse reaction than a goal celebration. There is only so much abuse a man can take until he reaches breaking point. I scored and I wanted to show people it is not a good idea to abuse me."

The FA will decide at a later date whether it was a good idea to celebrate as Adebayor did at a later date. ·