James Maddison aimed a not so subtle dig at Roy Keane after opening the scoring in Tottenham’s Premier League clash against Manchester United. Spurs went 1-0 up against United in Sunday’s match after Maddison was the first to react to Lucas Bergvall’s shot being parried by Andre Onana. Follow the latest updates and score of Tottenham vs Man Utd on Metro’s live blog. The England midfielder ran off to celebrate in front of the jubilant home crowd – but his celebration was just as noteworthy as the goal itself.
![[James Maddison]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/james-maddison.png?w=646)
Maddison is known for his love of darts, with miming a dart throw being his signature goal celebration. On this occasion however, he looked down a TV camera, mimicked a mouth with his hand before ‘throwing a dart’ and then making a shushing gesture. The celebration was clearly a dig at United legend Keane, who launched a scathing attack of Maddison earlier in the week – making a specific reference to the Tottenham star’s love of darts.
![[Manchester United v Leicester City - Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-2197614850.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=594)
Speaking on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet, Keane said: ‘We saw Maddison at Tamworth, he was taken off. Tamworth are non-league. ‘People say Maddison’s the man. When is he going to step up to the plate? He got relegated with Leicester and he’ll get relegated with Spurs. ‘Maddison isn’t bad when he’s not at the darts, but let me tell you, if you think he’s going to come back and get Spurs into the top six, you’re in cuckoo land.
‘He’s good, he’s a talented player. But if you’re a player in the Spurs dressing room and Maddison’s back in the squad, you wouldn’t be looking and going “oh Jesus – he’s back today. We’re going to be fine”. ‘England have a squad of 300 and he can’t even get in that. You kid yourselves everybody.’. Maddison may have answered Keane’s criticism with a goal against the Red Devils – his 10th in the Premier League this season.
The 28-year-old did come under criticism from supporters in December after he and teammate Brennan Johnson were spotted at the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace just hours after a 2-2 draw with struggling Wolves. Replying under a post of the player on the PDC’s Instagram account, one fan wrote: ‘U taking the p***? The form were(sic) in and U go to the darts?? Unacceptable.’. Maddison hit back at the supporter, responding: ‘Shut up u wally’, along with a laughing emoji.
