LONDON: Emmanuel Adebayor's punishment for raking his studs down Robin van Persie's face will be a three-match ban from the Football Association tomorrow after the Manchester City striker admitted a charge of violent conduct.

Adebayor will miss Sunday's derby at Manchester United as well as the Carling Cup tie at home to Fulham next Wednesday and West Ham United's visit to the City of Manchester Stadium the following Monday. His club said they had "reluctantly accepted" he would be unable to convincethe FA that he had not meant to hurt Van Persie, having left him with a bruised and bloodied face during City's 4-2 defeat of Arsenal on Saturday.

"The player strongly maintains that he did not intend to act in a violent manner," City said in a statement. "He apologised on the day to Robin van Persie personally and to the wider public for the outcome of the challenge."

The club had initially considered fighting the charge but were also mindful that, if they did so unsuccessfully, Adebayor's punishment might have been extended to four games, especially as the referee, Mark Clattenburg, has informed the FA that, having originally missed the incident, he now considered it to be a deliberate stamp. Van Persie has accused his former team-mate of being "mindless and malicious" while Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, described the challenge as "dangerous" and "very bad".

City have subsequently decided there is no value in appealing but they will make a robust defence to try to ensure Adebayor does not miss any more matches because of his goal celebration after making the score 3-1. The £25m summer signing has been charged with improper conduct after running the entire length of the pitch to goad the Arsenal supporters, some of whom threw missiles on to the pitch. One steward needed lengthy medical treatment after being struck by a flying object.

Adebayor has already apologised for allowing "emotion to take over" and he was supported last night by the Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp. "I've got no time for people kicking anybody or being violent on the football pitch and he was wrong to run the length of the field, but it's very difficult when you're getting abuse throughout the game like he was," Redknapp said. "It's not celebrating a goal that cause riots, it's idiots who want to start riots. Adebayor went over the top but, at the same time, he was getting a lot of abuse from the fans for the whole afternoon.

"What did he do really? Run back and go like that, saying he scored. I'm not saying it's right but if you can't go near the away fans when you score because you'll cause a riot. If I had been standing there and we had been giving him grief all game and he did that, I would probably say, 'Fair play'."

He added: "Why do people need to shout abuse and cause riots? Why can't they just watch a game of football? I don't understand it. There's no need for it and there must be something wrong with you if you want to do that."

Mark Hughes could certainly do without losing a striker who has scored in each of City's four league games so far this season. Robinho and Roque Santa Cruz will also be missing at Old Trafford on Sunday because of injury, while Carlos Tevez's right knee was heavily strapped when he took part in a light training session and the Argentina international is regarded as a serious doubt.

That leaves Craig Bellamy as potentially City's only available striker and it is a measure of their concern that the Wales international was asked to take it easy in training to make sure he did not join the injury list. To add to Hughes's problems, there are also concerns about Micah Richards, who has been suffering from tonsillitis.