Sergio Aguero scored a record-breaking 260 goals for Manchester City, but the conversation usually settles on one of those in particular.
Yep, you’re there now, aren’t you? 93:20. Bask in it a little.
There are obviously loads of other Aguero goals that City fans love and he often saved his best for derby day.
Now you’re probably thinking of that majestic solo goal at Old Trafford in 2013, which ended with him rifling into the roof of David De Gea’s net.
Or maybe the strike at the Etihad Stadium later that year, when he contorted himself improbably to volley home from a left-wing delivery by Aleksandar Kolarov - a man who never knowingly under-hit a cross.
Perhaps you’d forgotten altogether that Sergio even scored in the 6-1. That was a day all about Mario Balotelli, Why Always Me, Edin Dzeko, David Silva and United’s kamikaze collapse.
It is rare that anything Aguero did is reduced to a footnote, but his goal in that beautifully brutal dismembering of Sir Alex Ferguson’s side made it 3-0 and was one of the most perfect team goals you’ll ever see. Allow us to jog your memory.
Yaya and David survey the scene
There is a shade over 20 minutes to go and City are toying with their hosts, who are down to 10 men after Jonny Evans’ foul on Balotelli. The Italian striker is responsible for all of the 2-0 scoreline at this point.
This is a moment of pure serenity amid the derby day heat. Yaya Toure has the ball at his feet and a bedraggled team before him, at his mercy. For the only time of any significance during the whole game, David Silva is standing and watching rather than conducting.
Two masters of their craft are enjoying being lords of the manor. This used to be Keane and Scholes’ place? Not anymore. It’s ours now. Then Toure spears a pass in towards the man of the hour.
Balo’s backheel
In pretty much every game you’ve seen him play, Mario has tried flicks and tricks of varying levels of difficulty and ridiculousness. His 360-degree pirouetting backheel during the summer tour of the United States that preceded this derby remains a highly - Roberto Mancini angered to the extent that he substituted his protege immediately.
But right now, at Old Trafford, the only thing that has not come off for Balotelli all weekend is his bathroom fireworks show in the small hours of Saturday morning.
Patrice Evra is in attendance but hesitant, having just been booked for clobbering through Gareth Barry. Balotelli normally acquires red cards, United can’t have him causing two. The Frenchman gives City’s enfant terrible room to scamper onto Toure’s piercing ball and dispatch a perfect first-time lay-off to an unlikely ally.
Exciting James Milner
Two footballers could not be further apart in the popular consciousness than Balotelli and “boring” James Milner. The Yorkshireman has probably never lit a candle near the sink, let alone launched rockets out of it.
Regardless, the two men are dreamily in-sync at Old Trafford. Milner supplied the assists for both Balotelli and he does not have to break stride as his teammate’s backheel falls perfectly for him.
A one-touch masterpiece is underway as Milner picks out an effervescent England colleague.
Micah of the match
Balotelli and Silva are the players most synonymous with this slice of blue heaven but Sky Sports named Micah Richards as their Man of the Match on the day.
It was not without good reason, Richards attacked relentlessly as United showed vulnerability down the flanks. He was inexplicably denied a penalty when brought down by Anderson (Mark Clattenburg’s signal of mashing his fist into his palm and turning it around repeatedly still makes absolutely no sense by way of an explanation).
On this goal, this is Micah at his buccaneering best. Given his City career felt like it would contain many more such moments, only for injury to intervene, it really is one to savour.
Catch of the day
Once Milner releases Richards and the full-back lines up his first-time cross, Aguero has a familiar smell in his nostrils. It absolutely reeks of goals and he’s having some of that.
He darts in between two defenders to slide home. Not for the last time in Sergio’s presence, Phil Jones is left on the floor.
Then, displaying reactions that would come in handy seven months later, when he caught Dzeko’s header bouncing out of the net and ran back to the halfway line against QPR, Aguero instinctively grabs the ball and runs off with it for the celebrations.
No scope for United’s players to frustratedly boot it away or trot back for kick-off, you’ll have to wait until Sergio is done celebrating in front of the away end. Watch it, drink it in.
What was your favourite goal in the 6-1? Follow our City Is Our s editor Dom Farrell on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
