The year was 2009, and Emmanuel Adebayor had just left Arsenal in acrimonious circumstances following a prolonged (and now familiar) spell of half-arsing it.
As these things tend to pan out, Adebayor then scored against his former club the very next time they visited the Etihad Stadium just a couple of months later.
After spending the entire game up until that point being heckled for his betrayal, the City striker seized the opportunity to go hurtling the entire length of the pitch to confront the travelling Gooners with a defiant celebration, almost provoking a full-scale riot in the away end as a result.
Talking to Sport Witness, Adebayor divulged the full story behind the infamous knee-slide:
Why did I do it? The adrenaline. Afterwards, I got told the English FA wanted to give me a nice fine, but even if I would have had to pay €2million, considering what I went through, I would have still done it.
I wasn’t going to stand there, listening to five thousand people insult my family when they had nothing to do with it. During that moment, I felt like I weighed 20 kilos when I felt like I weighed 2000 kilos before the game.
The Togolese target man then proceeded to offer a play-by-play breakdown of the whole thing:
When I start to run, (Shaun) Wright-Phillips tries to catch me. He’s small, so a shoulder barge sends him flying. Then there was (Gareth) Barry, very slow: a quick juke move and he’s left behind. Around the centre circle was Kolo Touré, and he quickly realised it was better to just let me do my thing.
When I slide on my knees, arms wide in front of the fans, I felt untouchable. People were throwing everything: phone, bottles of water. I never flinched. Everything flew past me. Pew, pew, like in the movies!
It was like having a sensation of being in prison for so many years and suddenly being told: ‘Brother, take the door and leave. Now, you are free’. That’s what I felt, a deliverance.
One of the all-time great goal celebrations and a genuine Premier League highlight. Anybody who thinks otherwise truly hath no soul to bear.
Because it would be churlish of us not to, here’s that wonderful display of weapons-grade rankling once again…
The age old question arises once again: Who smuggled that little plastic stool into the stadium, and why?