Blues wasters sparked trouble
KOLO TOURE has blamed Chelsea’s cynical stalling tactics for sparking the Snarling Cup final. The Arsenal defender hit out as the Gunners appealed against Emmanuel Adebayor’s red card for his part in Sunday’s mass brawl.Toure, also sent off, insisted he does not deserve to be banned for his own clash with Chelsea’s Mikel Jon Obi. The Ivory Coast ace rapped: “Chelsea were winning and started to waste time and I was not happy with that. “That is why I had some words with Mikel but then Lampard came in and got involved and made the thing bigger than it was.”
Toure’s tussle with Mikel led to the shameful 18-man bust-up and ended with ref Howard Webb dismissing the Blues ace along with the Arsenal pair. Toure insisted: “I shouldn’t be banned. When they look at the tape, they will see I did nothing wrong.
“The people who run football know who is bad and who is not. A player like me has played a lot of games but I do not choose to do that type of thing. “I apologise for my actions but I do not feel I have let the club down. “I am always trying to do my best for the club and the supporters. But anyone can make a mistake or do something bad and that is why I need to apologise.
“I do not want to make my mistake any bigger.” Toure, 25, will be suspended for Arsenal’s next three domestic games, starting with tomorrow’s FA Cup replay at Blackburn.

Boss Arsene Wenger is hoping he will not be joined by striker Adebayor. The Togo striker insists he was simply trying to help Toure. Adebayor said: “I knew I could calm Kolo down. He’s like my big brother and I knew I could hold him down. “I remember Kolo had the ball and Lampard was pushing him. He fell down and when he got back on his feet he was very angry and upset.
“I’ve never seen Kolo like that before. Kolo is a nice guy, a brilliant guy, a fair-play guy. He never gets upset. “That’s why I tried to calm him and tell him to stop it. I was trying to stop a lot of guys. “I just ran there straight away to pull people away. I am a strong man and I know I can stop things. “I was just trying to break things up but then the ref showed me a red card.
“I don’t know why I should say I regret something I didn’t do. I never hit anybody so I cannot regret it.” Adebayor is also facing a misconduct charge for failing to leave the pitch after being sent off.
He admitted: “I was upset when I saw the red card. When you’re in a big final, you don’t want to leave your team with nine men against Chelsea. “But I didn’t want to hit the referee or beat him up. I just wanted to ask him why he gave me the red card.
“My team-mates came up to me and said, ‘Manu, you have to stop this. You have to go off’. I wasn’t going to be aggressive towards the referee. “But sometimes other people do things and you are the one to pay the price.”