De Jong not interested in history lesson

Nigel de Jong was not even born when Manchester City last won at Arsenal but the Dutch midfielder is not going to let the weight of history bother him.

After last week’s gut-wrenching defeat to Manchester United, City have conceded the advantage to Tottenham in the race for fourth spot.

The Blues are also aware if they fail to record a first victory at the Emirates Stadium tonight, Aston Villa – who visit Eastlands next weekend – will suddenly find themselves right back in contention as well.

It leaves De Jong in little doubt no time can be spent worrying about the fact City have not beaten the north London outfit on their own patch since 1975, when Asa Hartford, Joe Royle and Rodney Marsh were the scorers in a famous 3-2 win.

“It is a long time ago. I was not even born then,” said De Jong, whose arrival came in Amsterdam almost a decade later.

“But all that history doesn’t change our aim. It doesn’t matter where we go now, we have to try and win.

“It is not going to be easy but it never is when you play a side from the top four.”

The importance of the occasion will be overshadowed by the return of Emmanuel Adebayor to Arsenal.

Although City have quite a contingent of former Gunners in their ranks, including Patrick Vieira, Kolo Toure and Sylvinho, Adebayor is in the firing line because of his conduct in the league meeting between the two clubs in September.

First Adebayor raced the full length of the field to launch an inflammatory goal celebration in the 4-2 win before landing himself with a three-match ban for raking his studs down the side of Robin van Persie’s face.

Van Persie was livid at the time and that, combined with the knowledge Arsenal are now out of this season’s title race, leaves De Jong anticipating very focused opponents.

“They have a little bit of history with us after what happened in the first game of the season,” said the Holland midfielder.

“Also maybe the pressure is off for them in terms of results, so they will go at us even harder.”

The good news for City is that Roberto Mancini reports a clean bill of health, with Micah Richards set to return from a knee injury.