Emmanuel Adebayor, the Manchester City striker, has reignited his war of words with Arsenal, condemning their “insulting” supporters and claiming that he would not have been picked if he had stayed at the club.

Adebayor was banned for three matches for raking his studs down the face of Robin van Persie, his former team-mate, and given a suspended two-game ban and a £25,000 fine for his wild celebration in front of the Arsenal fans during City’s 4-2 win last month at Eastlands.

The Togo striker said he regretted both incidents, but in the latest of a series of outspoken attacks, he claimed that the behaviour of his former team-mates and the Arsenal fans towards him had been to blame.

“It was a special game because you’re playing against your former team and coming up against people who were like brothers,” Adebayor said.

“When I got to the tunnel and saw my friends, I tried to shake their hands . . . but they didn’t want to shake my hand and it was a shock. ‘What is going on? What am I?’ I felt very hurt.

“After that I thought, ‘OK, that’s part of life and you just have to deal with it.’ After that, when I got on the pitch and heard some fans singing, insulting my dad, insulting my mum, you can’t take everything.

“We have all got our limit. You can insult me, but don’t touch my family, don’t touch my parents. When I heard the fans singing, insulting my family, then I had to respond. There was no better way to respond than to score a goal against them.”

Adebayor also claimed that he had little choice but to leave Arsenal in the summer for fear of not being picked if he remained at the club, but he insisted that he was looking to the future now and has high hopes for City.

In an interview with CNN, he said: “When I had a good discussion with the boss [Arsène Wenger], I realised that what he was trying to tell me was that if I stayed, I would not have a chance to play.”