Mario Balotelli wasn't the only Manchester City player to taunt an opposing team via a carefully-crafted goal celebration. A year before the Italian rocked up at Eastlands, it was Emmanuel Adebayor leading the line up front for the Citizens, after controversially joining from Arsenal for £25 million. Adebayor received horrendous abuse from outraged Gunners fans for turning his back on the club but later got his revenge when City took on the Londoners a couple of months after his transfer. After the Togo international headed past Manuel Almunia to secure a 4-2 win over his former side, Adebayor raced the full length of the pitch and slid onto his knees in front of travelling Arsenal fans, who reacted furiously as anger poured out from the stands. Adebayor later reflected the abuse he received from Arsenal supporters justified the controversial celebration, saying:
I scored and wanted to show people it is not a good idea to abuse me. I really didn't understand it at all. I was running on pure emotion and when you take emotion out of football we are going to have a big problem. People say I had time to think about it because I ran the length of the pitch but that is not true. I was abused all match and scored a goal I knew would win the game for us. Ten seconds is nothing - your emotion is going to last a lot longer than that.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
