Adebayor faces long ban after van Persie challenge

Emmanuel Adebayor, the Manchester City striker, could be facing a long period out of the game after Greater Manchester Police criticised the Togolese player for sparking scenes of chaos at Eastlands stadium during Saturday's 4-2 win over Arsenal.

After scoring City's third goal of the game with just 10 minutes of the match to play, Adebayor, a former Gunner who left the London club during the summer after losing the confidence of the fans and manager Arsene Wenger due to his perceived lack of commitment, ran the length of the pitch to celebrate his goal directly in front of the visiting supporters.

His provocative and pointlessly antagonistic actions led to chaos in the Arsenal end of the stadium. "The player's goal celebration caused the opposition fans to be aggravated and there was a crowd surge," a police spokesman said. "One of the objects that were thrown caught a steward and knocked him out." The injured steward was unconscious for five minutes, and police reinforcements were called to restore order.

Adebayor has apologised for his celebration, called it a "mistake" that he was "awfully sorry" for, and claiming that "emotion took over", but the City's £25m man is likely to face major sanctions against him by the Football Association, whose chief executive Ian Watmore attended the game.

Watmore praised stewards for "doing a great job trying to calm it down" and congratulated referee Mark Clattenburg for reacting "very well" to the incident. Watmore unequivocally blamed Adebayor: "I am pretty unimpressed really because the problem between Arsenal fans and Adebayor is well documented. The issue, particularly, is that he ran the whole length of the field. I am unimpressed and I will ask my [disciplinary] team to look very carefully at what he did."

There will be further pain for Adebayor, as a result of an alleged assault by the City player on his former teammate Robin van Persie ten minutes before the crowd trouble, and a stamp on Cesc Fabregas. An FA decision is likely to be fast-tracked, which will see Adebayor banned from this weekend's Manchester derby for raking his studs across the face of Dutch international van Persie, who described the incident as a "mindless and malicious stamp".

The incident with Spanish midfielder Fabregas only came to light yesterday, and could see a ban of more than four matches being imposed. Arsene Wenger criticised his former charge's behaviour as "very dangerous" and will press the FA to throw the book at Adebayor. ·