James Maddison on Neal Maupay mimicking his darts celebration - 'He hasn't scored enough goals of his own'

James Maddison and Neal Maupay were involved in an exchange of words after the Brentford forward copied Maddison's darts celebration following his goal that put the Bees 1-0 up at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Thomas Frank's side deservedly opened the scoring in the 13th minute after some sloppy Spurs play in the middle of the park.

Maupay stole the ball to spark the counter-attack before bundling home on the rebound after Ivan Toney's stinging shot could only be parried out by Guglielmo Vicario.

The Brentford man drew the ire of Maddison for mimicking his celebration, but the Spurs midfielder had the last laugh after Ange Postecoglou's charges scored three quick-fire second-half goals to win 3-2.

Asked what he said to Maupay after the pair had an altercation in the first half, Maddison told TNT Sports: "I just said to him he probably hasn't scored enough goals of his own over the last few years to have his own celebration so you probably have to copy mine.

"A short story - it ended well for us."

Maupay responded on Instagram after the match, saying: "Gutted we couldn't get the win.

"More goals and less relegations in my career than James Maddison. We go again Monday Bees."

A lacklustre Spurs side trailed at the break to Maupay's strike but flew out of the blocks with goals from Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson and Richarlison in the space of seven minutes.

Toney set up a thrilling finale when he made it 3-2 in the 67th minute but the hosts hung on for a crucial three points on Maddison's first league appearance since the beginning of November following an ankle injury.

"It was lovely to be back," Maddison added. "When you're injured and your starved of doing what you love, that just reminded me why I love football so much just being out there tonight.

"The first half was a little bit stop-start, probably the game Brentford wanted. Lots of stoppages, set pieces, and then the second half I just think we had too much for them.

"We were cleaner with the ball, created a lot of chances, scored some goals and it's never simple and plain sailing here. There's a lot of goals at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but luckily three points so I’m happy."

The win moves Tottenham up to fourth, just three points adrift of Manchester City and Arsenal in second and third respectively, and Maddison insists there's no reason the north London club can't go on and do something special this season.

"Let’s not put a ceiling on it, let’s just keep going game by game, I think we've got 16 or 17 games left," he continued.

"We can go on a big run. You can't put limits on it because then nothing special can ever happen. If you don't believe something special can happen, then nothing can ever happen.

"As long as you can look at yourself as a team after 38 games and say you get everything then we'll see where we are at the end of it."

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