Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor has launched a new attack on his former Arsenal teammates. Adebayor was banned for three matches for raking his studs down the face of Robin van Persie, his former team-mate, and given a suspended two-game ban and a £25,000 fine for his wild celebration in front of the Arsenal fans during City's 4-2 win last month at Eastlands.

And he told CNN: "It was a special game because you're playing against your former team and coming up against people who were like brothers.

"When I got to the tunnel and saw my friends, I tried to shake their hands . . . but they didn't want to shake my hand and it was a shock. 'What is going on? What am I?' I felt very hurt.

"After that I thought, 'OK, that's part of life and you just have to deal with it.' After that, when I got on the pitch and heard some fans singing, insulting my dad, insulting my mum, you can't take everything.

"We have all got our limit. You can insult me, but don't touch my family, don't touch my parents. When I heard the fans singing, insulting my family, then I had to respond. There was no better way to respond than to score a goal against them."