da heads bet: Neal Maupay considers his darts celebration taunt of James Maddison to be “goated”, as the Brentford striker got 11 Tottenham players "on toast”.
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Brentford loanee on target against SpursRiled opponents with reaction to scoringStriker considers wind-up games to be "fun"WHAT HAPPENED?
The French forward, who is on loan with the Bees from Everton, has earned a reputation for being a Premier League “sh*thouse”. He delights in winding up opposing players, and did just that during a London derby date with Tottenham on January 31.
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Maupay opened the scoring in that contest and celebrated by copying the dart-throwing celebration of Spurs rival Maddison. That ruffled a few feathers – with words exchanged on the field, in post-match interviews and across social media – but the enigmatic 27-year-old has no regrets.
WHAT MAUPAY SAID
Maupay, while assessing some of the Premier League’s biggest wind-up moments with , has said of having Tottenham on strings: “Believe it or not, that wasn't planned. I scored and as I was running, I thought I'm going to throw a dart. He celebrates his goals like that, but apparently you're not allowed to throw a dart, it's only him that can do it. The way he got offended, it was quite funny. Big man [Ivan Toney] got away with it because he did it as well but everyone went for me. That's class, I can't lie. It would have been better if we had won. But at their place in front of their fans, got all their players raging, that's goated. Just by throwing a dart I got 11 players on toast. It was so easy. It's mad how easy it is, but I'm just having fun, for me it is fun. Football is a game and I'm trying to enjoy myself.”
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Alongside his own inflammatory antics, Maupay put Emmanuel Adebayor’s celebration for Manchester City against Arsenal from 2009 into the “goated” category. That joined Jamie Vardy howling after scoring for Leicester at Wolves and Luis Suarez diving in front of the Everton dugout back in 2012 after finding the target for Liverpool in the Merseyside derby.