Emmanuel Adebayor: I was wrong to stamp on Van Persie... but don't regret my celebration

Emmanuel Adebayor has finally admitted he was wrong to stamp on Robin Van Persie.

The £25m Manchester City forward only returned to action on Monday night after serving a three-match ban for raking his studs down his former Arsenal team-mate's face.

The Dutchman angrily accused Adebayor of showing "a real lack of class" - and claimed he would never apologise.

And although the Togo striker stopped short of saying sorry, he has now confessed he regretted causing injury to a fellow professional back on September 12.

"It's one of the things that you can't do in football," Adebayor said. "That's for sure. It's true that if someone did that to me it would annoy and hurt me. I regret it, for sure."

But Adebayor was less contrite about his goal celebration in front of the visiting Arsenal fans which cost him a £25,000 fine and a suspended two-match ban.

He insisted he had not wanted to provoke the Gunners supporters - but he claimed they were wrong to label him for being a money-grabber as clamed he was "pushed out" by the club.

Adebayor said: "I talked with the coach and he told me I was one of Arsenal's best-paid players, that the club was in the red, so maybe they wouldn't be able to pay me any more - it would be better for me to go.

"I asked him: 'Is it your choice or the club's?' He answered: 'It's everybody's choice, from the whole club'. I was pushed out!

"My relationship with Arsenal has broken in two. I wanted to stay.

'When I heard the fans singing and insulting my parents, I couldn't stand it. When I scored, I wanted to show them: 'You kicked me out of the club, now I've scored against you'."

Last month Arsenal reported a net profit of £35.2 million for the year ending May 31, before the £40m was banked for the summer sales of Adebayor and Kolo Toure to Manchester City.