Neal Maupay took to Instagram to aim a brutal dig at James Maddison after Tottenham came from behind to beat Brentford on Wednesday night. Maupay opened the scoring for the Bees early on before quick-fire goals from Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson and Richarlison gave Tottenham all three points, with Ivan Toney grabbing another for Brentford before the final whistle.
Maupay locked horns with Maddison after copying the latter’s darts-themed goal celebration, with the Tottenham ace taking exception to what he saw as mockery. He reacted by sarcastically patting Maupay on the head, which prompted a brief scuffle between the two players.
Maddison went on to poke fun at Maupay in his post-match interview on TNT Sports, saying: “He hasn’t scored enough goals in the last few years to have his own celebration so he had to copy mine! So a short story and it ended well for us.”
The exchange carried over to Instagram after the final whistle, with Maupay firing back at Maddison as he shared a picture of his celebration alongside the caption: “Went a bit early with that one [cover eyes emoji]. Gutted we couldn’t get the win. More goals and less relegations in my career than James Maddison. We go again Monday, Bees.”
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou was not best pleased with the on-pitch spat between Maupay and Maddison, with the Aussie underlining the importance of staying disciplined when quizzed on his thoughts in his post-match press conference.
Asked if Maupay’s celebration helped to fire his team up, Postecoglou replied: “I hope not because that’s exactly what I’m talking about. I’m not a fan of it, I don’t like the whole bravado, pushing people around. If you’re that brave about things, my players and their players, get into a UFC cage and I’ll see how brave they are.
“We’re out there to play football. And that’s what I want our guys to do, focus on playing football. And they shouldn’t get motivated by things that aren’t really that important to us. Like I said, we got sucked in first half.”
Meanwhile, Brentford manager Thomas Frank suggested that Maupay should have known better than to ruffle the feathers of the opposition, saying: “I didn’t see that. If he did it, maybe, maybe not.
“Personally I think it’s better to avoid things like that and just to celebrate goals but I know there is banter going around and there is always stuff you guys need to talk about. I guess it’s part of the game now.”
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