Gunning for Arsenal: Spurs' Emmanuel Adebayor targets top- four finish to prove point to his old club

Emmanuel Adebayor is ready to pile the pressure on his old club Arsenal - by keeping them out of the Champions League. The Togo striker helped Spurs to a Europa League last-16 tie against Inter Milan with an aggregate win over Lyon on Thursday. Now, he is determined to clinch Tottenham a top-four finish in the Premier League, depriving troubled arch-rivals of a place in European football's elite competition for the first time in 17 years. Arsene Wenger's men staged a valiant rally to overhaul their neighbours from White Hart Lane in the final months of last season, and the two clubs clash next week in a match that could prove pivotal to the current campaign. Adebayor said: "For me, it's a big opportunity to show people I was right to leave Arsenal, which means finishing on top of them. "If that's with Tottenham then it's even better. Everybody knows there is a big rivalry between Arsenal and Tottenham. "When I was at Arsenal, my job was to score goals for them. Now I'm at Tottenham and I have to help the team finish in the top four. "We have a big chance this season to finish on top of them and we have to take it." Adebayor has received widespread criticism for his haul of just three goals since joining Spurs from Manchester City in a £5m deal last summer - he scored 18 times for Tottenham while on loan from City last season. But he has put that poor return down to injuries, his sending- off in the north London derby earlier this season and the interruption caused by representing his country at the Africa Cup of Nations. He said: "Straight after my signing I got a hamstring, after that I was happy for Jermain Defoe, who was on top form [in a system that employed only one striker]. "Then I came back and had a good game against Manchester City but against Arsenal I got a red card. Then I went to the national team, scored goals for them and took them to the AFCON. "When I came back... well, don't get me wrong we are human beings. I'm tired. We are all tired. Now we are getting better." Defending his late return from the tournament - for which he was fined two weeks' wages - he went on: "I was just trying to help my Togo team-mates. I could not abandon the ship. In South Africa, there were no planes to go back home. "Financially, I can get a private jet and come back to London. But I don't want to abandon my team. As a captain, it's not a good example. "So we stuck together, we found a plane to go back to Togo, then as soon as we landed in Togo, the next flight that the club sent for me, I was on it. "It's difficult. People always have their own opinion. But when people went to the European Championship, they got a lot of time off "I went to the AFCON, a tough tournament in a different place, different culture. I came back and everyone starts blaming on me. Its not easy." Meanwhile, Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas believes they are showing other English clubs what can be achieved by fielding strong teams in the Europa League after winning through to the last 16. He said: "We want to continue setting the example in this competition. We think it has been a real example for England and we have been rewarded with two magnificent ties against Lyon and now Inter Milan."

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