ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:MANCHESTER CITY have had such an exhilarating start to Phase Two of the "project" that they must wish Emmanuel Adebayor, to use Mark Hughes's description, was not such "an emotional guy".

Adebayor might have succeeded in his apparent quest to exact revenge on those Arsenal supporters he blames for hounding him out of the club, but City can also feel aggrieved about the repercussions of him going to war with his former employers, wearing the expression of a man who had decided it was time to quit the talking and take the argument outside, the old-fashioned way.

Adebayor is in trouble and it does not come at a good time for City in a number of ways. Robinho has a stress fracture to his ankle that will sideline him for up to a month and, with Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz also injured, that makes it a bad moment for the team’s most dangerous forward to be facing an almost inevitable three-match ban.

There are two reasons why the authorities want to speak to him and, as Hughes ruefully noted, the other consequence was that it denied the rest of the team the praise they probably deserved.

Amid all the recriminations, the rushed apologies and the rancorous fingerpointing, it was almost overlooked, for example, that City’s fourth successive victory represents their best start to a season since 1961. Not many people seemed to pick up, either, that a record City of Manchester stadium crowd was there to see it, too – 47,339 shoehorned in to see the latest evidence that English football’s Big Four are on the cusp of becoming a Big Five.

For Arsenal, it works the other way, Adebayor’s antics deflecting attention from the fact that his old club are still troubled by the same failings, outpassing opponents without outscoring them, winning praise rather than points, all culminating in the agonised body language of Arsene Wenger as he confesses that, yes, it is becoming a habit and “a worry”.

Inevitably, though, a momentous game will be remembered for that astounding moment when Adebayor flashed a header beyond Manuel Almunia and then embarked on a 90-yard dash to arrive in front of the Arsenal fans. Nine minutes earlier was the stamp that left Robin van Persie with a bloodied face and complaining of a “mindless and malicious” assault.

First, Adebayor bodyswerved Shaun Wright-Phillips, then he evaded Micah Richards, a drop of the shoulder and he was off, head raised, sprinting the full length of the pitch, a one-man runaway embarking on the most provocatively choreographed knee-slide imaginable.

Everyone knows his grudge by now. Adebayor resents the Arsenal fans for turning on him last season. They had collectively ignored Wenger’s request on the morning of the game not to abuse him and, by the time he arrived in front of their stand, there was a concerted effort by some to get on the pitch.

Enraged, they threw a car-boot sale’s worth of goods, including a plastic stool and several bottles, one knocking a steward unconscious. Police reinforcements were needed as the trouble threatened to escalate. Adebayor did apologise but it was tempting to wonder whether it was genuine contrition or just an attempt to get off the hook. The striker certainly did not look too remorseful at the final whistle, embarking on another deliberate though scaled-down wind-up routine. He has been described as losing the plot; on the contrary, he seemed totally in control, albeit permanently on the edge. “It was not enjoyable to see,” Wenger said.

Wenger’s real complaint was the ease with which City scored their goals. Almunia’s reactions were ponderous, at best, as Richards opened the scoring with a header that hit the post and went in off the goalkeeper. Van Persie capitalised on Joelon Lescott’s mistimed tackle to equalise and, at that stage, Arsenal were the superior team but the marking was poor in the extreme when Craig Bellamy re-established City’s lead and, again, when Adebayor got his fourth goal in as many league games.

The odd thing was that even when Wright-Phillips dinked City’s fourth goal over Almunia with six minutes to go, Arsenal still had enough chances to get something out of the game. The fit-again Tomas Rosicky made the score look more respectable and Van Persie hit a post before studiously ignoring Adebayor at the final whistle. Nicklas Bendtner also made a point of shunning his former colleague, their relationship epitomised by the number of sneaky hacks they had exchanged. Adebayor had seemed determined to upset Arsenal but there will be repercussions for his present employers as well.