For every opponent, you have a goal that stands out above all others.
QPR, well that’s obvious. For Leicester, it’s Vincent Kompany’s thunderbolt. Southampton, cast your mind back to Georgi Kinkladze’s twinkling left boot. For Burnley, take your pick from about 37 Shaun Goater efforts.
When Fulham step onto the Etihad Stadium turf to face Manchester City in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday, plenty of fans will already have cast their mind back fondly to when the west London outfit visited nearly eight years ago.
No, we’re not talking about Yaya Toure’s clattering long-range drive to complete a hat-trick in a 5-0 win. Or Fernandinho thundering one into the top corner when darting away from goal. Where’s the fun in that?
We’re talking about a goal that’s the polar opposite of such exploits in almost every way.
You tell me a two-yard prod into an empty net can’t be beautiful and I’ll show you Martin Demichelis’ goal against Fulham.
The goal counted for very little - it was already 4-0 in the 88th minute. It was all about the aesthetics.
Stevan Jovetic was played in down the right channel by Fernandinho after Fulham failed to clear a set-piece and his cross-cum-shot was partially stopped by goalkeeper David Stockdale.
The rebound trickled to Demichelis, unmarked and laconic at the back post. No pace on the ball? No problem, Martin wasn’t going to over-extend himself.
In fact, he almost trapped it. From such a short distance, Demichelis tucked the ball home at such a glacial pace that he was able to nonchalantly lift his arm in celebration before his shot crossed the line and barely brushed the netting.
That arm in the air from the veteran ponytailed centre-back really was the clincher - the moment that sealed Demichelis’ progress from hapless no-hoper to unlikely cult hero in the eyes of the City faithful.
A favourite of Manuel Pellegrini from their time together at River Plate and Malaga, Demichelis arrived from Atletico Madrid for £4.2m in September 2013 and initially looked as you’d expect a 32-year-old thrown into the rough-and-tumble of the Premier League for the first time in his career to look.
He was an oddity with dodgy hair, but after the turn of the year, Demichelis’s enduring qualities - in particular his ability to read the game and calmly build play - saw him play with increasing authority.
The season ended with Demichelis as Vincent Kompany’s first-choice partner, sprinting past a joyous South Stand holding the Premier League trophy aloft. He then started for Argentina in the World Cup final.
Even so, it is impossible to imagine City making a signing like Demichelis today. Director of football Txiki Begiristain was early in his tenure then and perhaps unable to resist a concession to Pellegrini over one of his favourites.
The decision was vindicated by the 2013/14 title win and Demichelis continued his impressive form the following season.
It was a good job, given Eliaquim Mangala’s travails after a big-money move from Porto went horribly to pot. It surely wasn’t the plan to call upon Demichelis in 31 Premier League games and seven in the Champions League that year.
That should have been that, but he earned the dubious reward of a new contract. Compatriot Nicolas Otamendi was added to the squad and was only a little less accident-prone than Mangala.
So, again, Demichelis played. By 2015/16, he was a fraction slower and that was a punishing drop from not being particularly quick to begin with. A teenage Marcus Rashford eviscerated him in the Manchester derby as his City career limped towards an unsatisfactory close.
Those were the other memories of Demichelis that came back this week, as City signed another River man in Julian Alvarez - a 22-year-old forward with his best years ahead of him - and tied down academy standouts James McAtee, Josh Wilson-Esbrand and Oscar Bobb.
The football operation Begiristain oversees today is always mindful of the big picture and the years to come. Signings and contract extensions such as those involving Demichelis - so reactive and short-term - feel like a relic from the club’s past.
Still, we’ll always have Fulham. Anyone can score a tap-in from two yards but no one has ever done it with such effortless cool as Martin Demichelis.
