The FA have confirmed today that they will investigate both Adebayor’s stamp on van Persie and his goal celebration which sparked a near riot among Arsenal supporters. Not explicit in that statement, but implicit, is the fact that when they look at the files they will almost certainly have a look at the conduct of the handful of Arsenal fans who threw objects on the pitch and I’m sure the head of referees will want to know how Mark Clattenburg missed a deliberate handball in the box a vicious elbow to the face and two stamping incidents.
As I have maintained since the Eduardo incident against Celtic, the fact is that any punishment meted out now will be a case of too little, too late. The facts are that had television replays been allowed Emanuel Adebayor would not have been on the pitch to score his goal and then would not have been there to perform his shameful goal celebration.
If you have any doubt about what was in Adebayor’s mind, Gunnerblog has compiled a series of animated gifs and a youtube clip which prove, conclusively, that Adebayor intentionally stamped Cesc, van Persie, and that he was not “celebrating in front of home fans” as City boss Mark Hughes has comically stated.
Here’s the first stamp on Cesc:
Note that he’s A) over the ball and B) looking at Cesc’s ankle. That this was a deliberate act of violence there can be little doubt. In fact, Clattenburg had words with Adebayor after, telling him to calm down.
The way that referees in the EPL justify behavior like this as “heat of the moment” or as “he’s geed up” has always been a source of tremendous frustration for me. More often than not they allow this first type of attack, but then will punish the retaliation. In Saturday’s match Adebayor stamped Cesc, elbowed Gallas, raked Robin’s face, and then attacked Alex Song from behind with a vicious kick to the back of the knee. When Song retaliated immediately, yellow card to Song.
I’m sorry but that’s the kind of refereeing discrepancies which allow refs to get away with illegal activities such as what happened in the NBA betting scandal. I’m not calling for perfection, but a semblance of balance would be nice and would prevent people from complaining about the refs so much.
Oh, and cue the “Arsenal are whingers about the refs HURRRRR” comments.
Irregardless, I do expect that Clattenburg will come in for some questions about why he chose to call the game the way he did. I doubt that anything will come of it. Heh, maybe he’ll apologize to Wenger as Mike Dean did for wrongly sending Wenger into the stands during the last Manchester match.
The second stamp (hey why not have a second bite at the apple?) was even more vicious as Adebayor felt aggrieved that van Persie had the temerity to take the ball off him and clearly looks down and lashes out at Robin. Make no mistake that was a deliberate attempt to stamp, Robin’s hand. Of course, as most of us are used to with Adebayor, he missed the target and instead hit Robin’s face.
Robin van Persie has released a statement about the incident and to his credit he didn’t use the words “huge,” “fucking,” “scabby,” or “cunt.” There is no doubt in my mind that he will get a 3 match ban for this… well, unless Clattenburg intervenes and says that he saw the incident and judged it to be “incidental.”
I know a lot of Arsenal fans are expecting further punishment to be meted out for Adebayor’s goal celebration but I’m not so sure we’ll see anything from that, at least not for Adebayor. If you look at the history of these things you’ll see that the FA is reticent to act in these cases. The only person I can remember getting a suspension from the FA for a goal celebration is Robbie Fowler for snorting the end line. Given the fact that Clattenburg gave a yellow, it would take an extraordinary action on the part of the FA to do something here. Normally, the club would fine the player but given the fact that Mark Hughes is talking out his ass about Adebayor wanting to celebrate in front of home fans, I think that is highly unlikely.
What I do think is likely is that there will be a huge stink about the Arsenal fans’ reaction. First of all, though, this wasn’t a “near riot” as some folks would like to make it out to be. There were a few folks who over-reacted and I expect that the club will receive some sort of censure for it. Second, I would not be surprised to see at least a few identifiable supporters banned for throwing chairs. But only if they are clearly identifiable.
And what did they react to?
Disgraceful, but no less that you’d expect from a guy who blames the fans for being caught offside 40+ times last year. Yeah, it was all their fault that you couldn’t be arsed to get onside.
So, the FA are promising to look into all this and have also promised to rule early next week. Good, the sooner we can get this ugly incident behind us the better.
i have to say, tim, i initially thought arsenal fans were over reacting to ade’s behavior due to the manner in which he departed the club combined with the way he stuck it to us in the match yesterday. but looking at the clips above it does look like he intentionally tried to injure both cesc and rvp. as far as the goal celebration i think that was immature on his part, but obviously the fans’ reactions are out of proportion to what ade did. of course i’m sure he knew that he would bring about this type of reaction with his celebration. in spite of how well ade played yesterday and has been playing this whole season, i am still glad arsenal got rid of him. his behavior is unprofessional and disgraceful to his club, and now he will have to serve a suspension that will harm his club in the table. just my $.02
The bloke is a moron and should be banned for at least 4 games. No wonder he is hated by the fans!
He should have at least a seven game ban, remember the Paul Davis Flick on Glen Cockerill.
The guy is a thug, City will soon find out his true character in the months to come.
Shame on you Greedybayer
Jus to think that we supported him for a long time of him being average then after he has on good season he does and says all the things he said. Then instead of putting in at least hard-working performances last season after we gave him the money he wanted, he played as if he was holiday. I supported him last season saying he had injuries n stuff, but the way he celebrated yesterday just basically stuck the middle finger to every arsenal who supported him as well as those who didnt.
good luck to him but he has know surpassed ashley cole
@Le Sagna, this is the most painful thing for me. I supported him on this blog nearly every week, defending him from his multiple detractors, and he repaid me with this display and with his disgusting pre-match comments about how American and Jamaican Arsenal supporters aren’t real supporters.
It’s part of a larger issue that some of us American supporters suffer with and I’ll be addressing it in a blog soon.
I too supported him last season!
Thing is, City is a humiliation for him. He was expecting Milan or Barca, or at the very least Chelsea. Horror, no takers: loss of face. He’s a flakey kid anyway, who’s had quite a hard time – yes, really: his childhood was unusually tough and he’s still under the thumb of a slightly sinister-sounding guy who bought him his first pair of boots and plane ticket to Europe and who fills his head with grandiose ideas. I’m not excusing his behaviour, just saying it’s predictable.
Great piece of writing. Too bad I already had a discussion to lenght on other blogs.
I am so glad Ade doesn’t play for us anymore. Don’t want to be associated with a greyhound on rabies.
@DutchGooner10, thanks, my time zone is both a benefit and a curse. It’s a benefit when I get to do match reports right after the game and a curse when I do a match report and the next day the story has shifted.
Oh well, if you stay tuned I’m sure you’ll find plenty of original stuff here.
Can anyone blame ‘Le Boss’ for ushering ‘Mad Ade’ out of the club, and pocketing the proceeds. Lunatic doesn’t begin to cover it.
Let’s hope that the FA treat the incidents seriously, there is a case for three offences to be taken in to consideration. Deliberate stamp on Cesc, stamp on RvP, and inciting the crowd.
Three month ban for dangerous conduct, amounting to, two assaults, and incitement to violence. Also heavy sanction on ManCiteh for failing to keep their player under control.
We were too slow in the first half, failed to defend from the front, too many cross park and backward passes. Second half was better but inattentive defending again let us down.
Diaby is a nightmare, fails to release the ball early enough, fails to track back and defend, half the time he’s away with fairies. We can’t blame youthful naievity, he’s allegedly a mature player.
Apart from that, bad luck and poor refereeing seems to be our shadow.
Richards was offside for the first goal.
Clear penalty for handball ignored.
Ade should have been off the pitch long before he scored.
RvP hits the post and it bounces out, they hit the post and it bounces in off Pickledickles head.
Better be better in Liege!!
Viva!
Even though david bentley scored a cracker against last season he had the decancy to celebrate with his own fans after all the history thats gone on. Even though he was over the moon after the game he still managed to give a decent post match interview. So all this things about he is an emotianal person doesnt cut it with me. Every “human being” can control their emotions.
When I first saw the stamp on Robin, I thought it was all an accident, and from the initial TV replays, he looked like he was facing the direction the ball went in. Having seen this however, there can be no doubt that Adebayor deliberately stamped on Robin’s face. He clearly looks down first, and to cap it off, there’s a “take that!” look on his face to boot.
I am getting tired of complaining about refereeing decisions costing us games. They do, and we somehow seem to get the worst end of virtually every refereeing decision, especially away from home. Yesterday, Clattenburg seemed to think that if a City player pushed one of our guys off the ball (as happened a lot) then it was fair, physical play, but if an Arsenal player did the same, he couldn’t blow his whistle fast enough. The team should know this, and should therefore work to stick the ball in the net so many times the ref and his prejudices become insignificant.
Yesterday, we had a lot of possession, but there wasn’t much penetration. We barely troubled Given, until the tie was lost. That, more than anything else, has got to change. I was prepared to read a lot of negative crap from so-called fans in the wake of the defeat, and I have not been disappointed, but I am sad that I have to share my club with such cretins.
We have to move on, and I’m glad we’ve got a Champions League game coming up, it’ll keep the guys focused, and hopefully, everytime Robin looks at an opposition team, he’ll go all Bobby Boucher on and visualise and attack!
Tim, there was actually another high profile example of crowd incitement after a goal in recent years – Gary Neville riling up the Liverpool fans by pointedly kissing his badge in front of them.
It was blatent incitement, and he was banned for two matches. So by the same precedent, Adebayor should receive the same.
Which would be a five match ban at a time when Robinho and Tevez are injured. He certainly does think of himself first, doesn’t he?
You have to wonder… though…. Had Ade done those same stamps while still wearing the Arsenal jersey… would the refs / media / etc have the same reaction???
Ban the cunt for life.
@Xabier, I hope someone breaks both his legs and possibly burns down his house.
Rest assured as a UK gooner I appreciate the work of you American bloggers and the support all give to the club.
Adebayor wanted to be worshiped like Henry, but instead only managed to surpass the infamy of Ashley Cole. Talk about irony. There’s a lesson to be learned in that, but somehow, I don’t think fate will conspire to teach him such a lesson.
Also, I want to give respect to Toure for getting the muppet up to his feet and pushing him away from the fans. He could have done it sooner and with a bit more vigor but still, Toure gets the love.