The Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor will use any abuse directed at him by Manchester United's fans in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final as inspiration. His club stretched their unbeaten league record to 20 games against Middlesbrough on Sunday and, although the 25-year-old started that game on the bench, he will be fit to face United.

"When you get on to the pitch, the people around will be singing against you, they will be hating you, and that can give you more motivation," said Adebayor, who scored in the league at Old Trafford last season and the winner there in September 2006.

"I know they do not like me there because I managed to get a goal, and you just feel like 'Okay, I will show you again how good I am.' In three games there I have scored two goals and I know it will not be easy to get another one, but I will give 100% to do everything it takes to score or to help my team win the game."

Six of Adebayor's 16 goals this season have come in Europe, including a scissor-kick to secure an away goal against Villarreal, and he said planning was key to his performances.

"As a player, two or three days before the game you close your eyes and put yourself in every difficult situation, in front of the goal, at a free-kick or a corner, how you are going to finish if you are in front of the keeper one-v-one," he said. "Those are the things you have to imagine. If you are not doing that then you will never score because what you can do on the pitch is what you have prepared for in your head before it comes. As soon as the head asks for something, the body will follow."

United were beaten 2-1 at Emirates Stadium in November, and there will be another meeting between the pair in the Premier League on May 16.

"We know how good they are and it is going to be an exciting game for English football," Adebayor said. "It is going to be tough, but we just have to believe we can do it, that we can win this cup. That is why we are here. We have the quality in the squad and are in form."

Arsenal head to the north-west without the services of injured leading scorer Robin van Persie and Russian playmaker Andrey Arshavin, who is ineligible, but Theo Walcott believes their attack will still threaten.

"We always look to keep a clean sheet and, with the attacking players we have got in this team, we can score goals from all sorts of positions," Walcott said. "If we can get a goal, that would be a brilliant result for us. The tempo is going to be very quick, a bit like a Premier League match."