Robin van Persie has accused Emmanuel Adebayor of a 'mindless and malicious' stamp on him during Man City's 4-2 win over Arsenal.

Gunners striker claims former team-mate stamped on him deliberately

Deeply disrespectful

Robin van Persie has accused Emmanuel Adebayor of a 'mindless and malicious' stamp on him during Manchester City's 4-2 win over Arsenal. Adebayor caught Van Persie in the face with his boot during the second half of the game and the Dutch striker is unhappy with his former team-mate. Togo ace Adebayor left Arsenal for City in a £25million move in the summer and was coming up against his old club for the first time. He was also booked for his length-of-the-pitch celebration after scoring City's third and now Van Persie has claimed Adebayor deliberately tried to hurt him."I am sad and disappointed by my former team-mate Emmanuel Adebayor's mindless and malicious stamp on me during today's match," said Van Persie in a statement issued on Arsenal's. "We are both professional footballers and I know that the game is physical, I too have made hard and sometimes mis-timed challenges, but never with the intention of hurting an opponent. He set out to hurt me today. "I knew he was aiming for a collision because he changed the angle of his body to allow contact to be made. He moved backwards when his natural momentum would have taken him forward. I find that deeply disrespectful. He has shown a real lack of class today, to me and the fans. "I do feel lucky that I have not suffered a greater injury. The contact was only centimetres from my eye. I have not received an apology from him, there were no words exchanged afterwards. He had his own agenda today and that is bad for football. It's bad for the game we all love. "I want to make it clear that this has nothing to do with the result of today's match. We do not hide from that disappointment, but I need to speak out about his behaviour." Adebayor insists he did not intentionally catch Van Persie in the head and says he has apologised to his former strike partner. "I was trying to kick the ball," Adebayor told. "I see him tackling and I don't have time to take my feet back because I'm trying to kick the ball. "My feet touch his head. I feel sorry for him and even straight away, and at the end of the game, I said sorry." Meanwhile, Adebayor has apologised for his reaction to his goal, which saw him run the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the travelling Arsenal fans. Adebayor said: "To be honest, I'm very sorry for all this. "Sometimes, the emotion takes over. That's what happened. I was very happy to score the goal. Before the game, people have been saying and writing things and the emotions took over. "People who love me and know me know how I behave."