Arsenal were easy prey for Man City but Arteta has now fixed their inferiority
This very modern sporting rivalry remains best defined by English football's most notorious knee slide. It was performed by Emmanuel Adebayor after scoring Manchester City's third goal in a 4-2 win over Arsenal and saw him sprint the length of the Etihad Stadium to goad those in the away end.
They had been insulting him about his parentage and ancestry, Adebayor explained, and he has always insisted there are no regrets when the moment is revisited, which tends to be at least twice a season.
Here we go again, almost 15 years on, because Arsenal are back at the Etihad having ended a run of 12 straight Premier League defeats to City with a 1-0 victory in October.
Mikel Arteta's team will go four points clear of the champions if they can win again and complete a first Premier League double over City since 2008-09.
That was the campaign when Adebayor was still a hero at the Emirates Stadium and scored both goals for Arsenal in a 2-0 win against City in April 2009.
Five months later, he was the arch villain of a tempestuous contest in which he also stamped on Cesc Fabregas and raked his studs across Robin van Persie's face.
Van Persie called his action 'mindless and malicious' and the FA issued retrospective punishment, as they did more frequently in the days before VAR.
They hit Adebayor with a three-match ban for the Van Persie incident and fined him £25,000 for the provocative celebration.
'I was running on pure emotion,' the Togo international said later. 'I was abused all match and scored a goal that I knew would win the game for us.'
Adebayor's goal was a header in the 80th minute. It put the home side 3-1 up. Not only did it enrage Arsenal supporters, it signified lift-off for the new City, little more than a year after the
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