RIOT and you land a hated opponent in hot water. Behave yourself, and the player gets off with it.

The Football Association will send out that twisted message loud and clear if they decide to punish Emmanuel Adebayor with a ban for improper conduct today.

Punishing Adebayor, whilst Robin van Persie and Gary Neville were simply told to stop being such naughty boys, would be wholly inappropriate - and the whole logic of the FA needs to be looked at.

When it boils down to it, Adebayor is being punished for the bad behaviour of the Arsenal fans.

His sprint for the length of the field and knee-slide celebration in front of the visiting supporters has already been dealt with, referee Mark Clattenburg giving him a yellow card.

It is what followed which has landed Adebayor with the charge of improper conduct which will be heard in London today.

Arsenal fans, quite happy to sing foul abuse and shower their former hero in hatred, put on a pathetic display of `let me at him'.

They threw things, they snarled and cursed, and made a great play of pretending they wanted to get onto the pitch to confront Adebayor - although whether any of them would have the guts to actually face the muscular, 6ft 3ins player on their own is highly doubtful.

Just a few minutes earlier, a similar scenario had been played out.

Shouted
Arsenal's Robin van Persie, who had been booed and cursed by City fans in the South Stand when he took corners, stuck one in the net and, instead of turning towards his own fans at that end of the field, raced towards the Blues supporters who had given him stick.

Where Adebayor had simply grinned, van Persie made a mouth-wiping gesture and shouted abuse in the direction of those fans.

The City fans did nothing in return, other than return the verbal compliments and gestures.

Result - no charge for van Persie. Message to City fans - next time throw a water bottle at a steward's head, try to invade the pitch, and van Persie will suffer the wrath of the FA.

Neville ran towards the City fans to celebrate United's late winner and, quite rightly, received no sanction other than a rap on the knuckles.

Three incidents of a similar nature, yet two are dealt with quickly and leneiently, while the third is taken much more seriously, simply because the fans involved in the third did not know how to behave.

It is a dangerous road down which to tread.

Identified

The FA dispute the fact that in using the reaction of supporters as a barometer, they are producing a charter for troublemakers.

They point, beatifically, to the fact that at the same time as they charged Adebayor, they also said: "We have also asked the Greater Manchester Police and the clubs to identify those supporters involved in any violent and aggravating behaviour. The FA would like to see anyone found guilty of such behaviour face action through the legal system and banning orders from football."

I am sure Greater Manchester Police are grateful to receive such direction from on high. Where would society be without the FA urging a crackdown on "violent and aggravating behaviour"?

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp got it spot on when he identified the "idiots and nutters" among the Arsenal support as the real culprits in all this.

And yet, by landing Adebayor with a charge, the pathetic behaviour of that handful of fans has achieved something to their satisfaction.

By contrast, this week Carlos Tevez was rightly applauded for his muted celebration of his first goal against his former club West Ham, out of respect for the support they gave him.

But the fact is that it was based on a mutual respect - the Hammers fans deserve great credit for not descending to the childish level of Arsenal fans, and laying into Tevez.

Tevez has said this week that he would not hold back the celebrations if he scores against United in future, but only because of the abuse and the coin-throwing incident which greeted him on his recent return to Old Trafford. These things work both ways.

Emotional

Too often in recent years we have seen fans exhibit such precious behaviour.

A few years ago United's Roy Keane celebrated a last-minute winning goal at Goodison Park in front of Everton fans.

The Scousers were queuing up to "tell on him" to any policeman, steward or emotional therapist who might be willing to listen.

The fact that they had given Keane and his team-mates dogs' abuse throughout the game was lost on them.

Mike Doyle recalled in M.E.N. Sport a fortnight ago how he had celebrated a goal at the Stretford End - who had howled abuse at him - with a two-fingered victory salute.

Nobody tried to lynch him, nobody ran to the nearest policeman, nobody whinged to the FA, and nobody was charged. Everybody survived, physically and mentally intact.

Of course, there has to be a line over which fans and players do not cross. Arsenal fans crossed that line with the personal abuse they dished out to Adebayor.

City fans cross that line when they sing songs calling United `Munichs' and Reds fans cross it when they make references to the Hillsborough disaster.

Until fans stop unacceptable behaviour - whether by volition or sanction - they cannot wail for justice whenever they get a little back.