How Premier League managers celebrate goals: Utter ecstasy, fist pumps or a pointy thing

New York Times

11-05-2025

Perhaps the most notable thing about Manchester City's 2-1 victory against Aston Villa in April was not the fact that they won, courtesy of a late Matheus Nunes goal, but rather the intensity of Pep Guardiola's celebrations.
This looked like a man who has spent the season under pressure, worrying, his team not up to its usual standards, and all of that poured out in one moment of emotional release (top picture).
So, how do the Premier League's other managers react in these scenarios? Here's an arguably too detailed breakdown of how every club's manager (apart from Southampton because, erm, they haven't got one at the moment) celebrates a goal.
The Arsenal manager is what my dear old departed nan would call a 'fidget bum'. He never stays still on the touchline, always pacing, always barking instructions. And his celebrations can be equally… fidgety. Actually, they are a bit of a mixed bag.
For a routine goal — take Jakob Kiwor's header against Crystal Palace in April, for example — he won't overdo it, just a clenched fist and a turn back to his coaching staff. He was even pretty reserved after Declan Rice's twin free kicks against Real Madrid. But when he goes for it, for the really dramatic goals, he can lose his mind with the best of them, haring down the touchline, leaping into the air, shepherding errant children away from the mayhem.
For many of the managers in the Premier League, goal celebrations tend to reflect their personality, or at least their management style in some way. Not Unai Emery.
He's famously thorough, methodical, the over-preparer's over-preparer. His player meetings and video sessions can be of a punishing length. But all that studiousness and control goes out of the window when Aston Villa score — particularly a dramatic goal when he allows emotion to overcome him and turns into a wild, uncoordinated, flailing mess.
You might think the idea of keenly analysing managers' goal celebrations is quite silly (and, in fairness, it is) but it can also reveal how football can overcome even the most careful and controlled figures and supplant logic. Ultimately, they're just like the rest of us.
Sometimes, there are managers whose giddy enthusiasm is such that they just look happy to be there. It's rather endearing, really: like they're thinking, 'I can't believe I've got such a good view of all this football!'
That's Iraola, who has an air of slightly hyperactive innocence to him on the touchline, which is reflected in the football that his Bournemouth play (Antoine Semenyo recently described it as 'organised chaos' in an interview with Amazon Prime) and in how he celebrates. He just looks absolutely delighted, and at the same time almost a little shocked, when a goal is scored.
Here's one for the category of 'manager who immediately turns to his coaching staff when a goal goes in'.
Frank and Brentford's whole thing is about the strength of the collective, that they can keep selling their best player and they will still somehow get better, despite all evidence to the contrary. So it would be a surprise if Frank didn't celebrate this way, and instead hared down the touchline, Jose Mourinho-style, lapping up all the glory to himself.
There's a wholesome vibe to Frank, who always feels like a friend of a friend that you don't see often but you're always delighted when he shows up.
Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Hurzeler is not exactly a relaxing figure on the touchline. Active. Demonstrative. Actually, let's be honest here, he looks like he can be a royal pain in the neck for anyone in his immediate vicinity.
Are his goal celebrations the same? Well, not necessarily.
Take the game against Manchester City this season, when Brighton came from behind to win 2-1: his reaction to their first goal wasn't to celebrate at all, but to immediately scream to his players to get the ball from the net. For the second, he allowed himself a solitary, mildly enthusiastic fist pump before turning to his bench to figure out some substitutions.
It wasn't an isolated incident, either: look at this, from their win against Tottenham Hotspur a month or so earlier. Same deal. Just because he's young, that doesn't mean he's not all business.
There's a particular sort of person who tends to celebrate goals, wins, anything to do with sporting success really, not with obvious expressions of happiness, but with an intensity that might look like anger to the untrained eye.
The roar, the screams, the widened eyes, the punching of the air.
Maresca has just that intensity at Chelsea; the sort of man who could terrify you while he's being happy. Indeed, it has landed him in some hot-ish water: his celebration of Pedro Neto's winner against Fulham, dancing onto the pitch with gusto, earned him a yellow card and thus a touchline suspension.
Celebrations: they can be costly.
A bit of a mixed bag. Glasner quite frequently does a sort of pointy thing, jabbing his finger at the south London air, when Crystal Palace score. What he seems to be doing is pointing at the scorer, or perhaps someone who has contributed something significant to the goal: it comes across as a combination of a congratulatory gesture, and a, 'I told you to do that and it's worked!' sort of thing.
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He can also really cut loose: when Daniel Munoz scored a stoppage-time winner against Newcastle United in February, Glasner sprinted down the touchline and leapt into the morass of his celebrating players in the corner. Obviously that sort of unfettered emotion won't do in England, and Glasner was booked for it.
'In Germany, they are more open-minded because I didn't get a yellow card!' he told the media later.
Munoz providing the late scenes:#CPFC // #CRYNEW pic.twitter.com/ohfbxA2L1R
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) November 30, 2024
Now at Everton, the enduring image of Moyes' career will probably be him dashing down the line, arms outstretched and howling at the sky after Jarrod Bowen scored West Ham United's winner in the Europa Conference League final. And then him hugging his father and draping the winners' medal around his neck. And then him dancing to the Proclaimers in the dressing room afterwards.
Clearly that's not typical of his everyday celebrations, and his reaction to James Tarkowski's absurdly brilliant and dramatic equaliser in the Merseyside derby this season was… understated — in that he just raised both fists in the air, wandered around near the dugout for a bit then fretted about the VAR check.
Goal celebrations have been a slightly touchy subject for Marco Silva.
When Fulham equalised against Ipswich Town back in January, he was visibly irritated that his players celebrated for too long rather than getting the ball back and restarting the game quickly. He was also irked a few years ago when Liverpool celebrated a late winner against his Everton team 'like it was the World Cup final'. When there is some celebrating of his own to do, he tends to be similar to Maresca: roars, not too many smiles, intensity that could be mistaken for anger.
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He's a fine coach who has done an excellent job overall at Ipswich, but is Kieran McKenna the most undemonstrative manager in the Premier League? Quite possibly.
And that's not just confined to goals: in their game against Manchester United recently, Patrick Dorgu stuck his studs into Omari Hutchinson's knee, a few yards in front of McKenna. Most managers in that situation would have appealed wildly, trying to ensure that the violence against their player did not go unpunished. But McKenna simply raised an arm, as if he were hailing a bus.
Maybe this is actually quite a good thing. People can be too animated. But it's still pretty unusual.
Erm, yeah. Not much to go on here. Sorry, Leicester City fans.
But on the relatively few occasions that Van Nistelrooy has celebrated a goal by his Leicester side, he has done so in much the same way that he used to enjoy his goals, with a huge roar and a sense that he would punch a hole through anyone in the way if he tried to score another one.
Alas, there have been more dejected slumps as Leicester concede yet another goal and spurn yet another chance, than celebrations at the King Power. Would it help to see how he celebrated when his Manchester United side scored against Leicester? No, no, probably not. Sorry.
There are many ways that Slot differs from his Liverpool predecessor, and how they celebrate goals is one of them.
Whereas it wasn't uncommon for Jurgen Klopp to enter some sort of fugue state after a dramatic goal, famously tearing onto the pitch and hugging Alisson after a last-minute winner against Everton, Slot is far more contained.
Take Virgil van Dijk's winner against West Ham in April: late in the game, a header that sealed a crucial three points after it looked like they had thrown the game away, Slot reacted with a brief roar and a quick fist pump, but the unrestrained joy lasted for about a second before he returned to consciousness and pointed to his head, urging his players to concentrate.
It reflects his personality perfectly: upbeat, but controlled, considered, sensible. No gurning or giving it the big one to a fourth official here.
Always a ball of nervous energy on the touchline, Guardiola often celebrates Manchester City goals with the air of a man who has just bought his dream home but thinks it's about to burn down.
He will often do the double fist pump, start skipping back towards the bench (probably to intensely scream into the ear of an unfortunate assistant) but then quickly look over his shoulder with a worried expression on his face. That's why his celebration against Aston Villa was so notable: Guardiola tends not to do unrestrained ecstasy. The edge is usually taken off by the nagging brain worms of the fretter.
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There's a theory that being a sportsperson — or at least an elite level sportsperson — is essentially hell because the misery of defeat far outweighs the joy of victory, which only brings with it relief that you've escaped the misery. That does spring to mind when watching Amorim on the touchline at Manchester United, which is to witness a man 'going through it', watching on as the latest calamity befalls his team, daydreaming about what it would be like back in Lisbon.
Regarding his reaction to the astonishing late goals in the Europa League comeback against Lyon: while everyone around him lost their minds and sank to their knees, he clasped his fists, smiled a smile of relief and then at the end, he was straight off down the tunnel.
There's a man who is only just coping with the stress and needs a lie down.
Here's another man who doesn't try to bring attention to himself (he had to be shoved into a prominent position by his players in the celebrations after Newcastle's Carabao Cup win).
Howe's goal celebrations tend to track with his personality. He'll allow himself a brief moment of joy, but is usually fairly still while his backroom staff (who are we kidding: Jason Tindall) takes care of the more demonstrative, jumping about stuff, before he turns his attention back to matters of business.
This season, Nuno has taken a set of players who were almost relegated last season and has them vying for a Champions League place: it has been a collective effort at Nottingham Forest, so it makes sense that his instinctive reaction to essentially every goal is to pump his fist, then turn around to his coaching staff and envelop them all in a group hug.
And he has been doing the same thing for years, too. Even in the brief and broadly uncelebrated spell at Tottenham. It's very Nuno: understated, calm, not bringing attention to himself.
You won't catch Ange dancing down the touchline to celebrate a goal. You won't catch him doing a dance on the touchline. You won't catch him doing much at all when Tottenham score, really.
You might get a grin. You might get a relatively minor fist pump. You might get him not immediately refolding his arms if it's a really good goal. Or you might get him giving it the big one to the fans — Tottenham fans, that is.
Postecoglou tried his best to tell the world that, when he cupped his ears and waved to the travelling support when he thought Spurs had scored against Chelsea, that he wasn't trying to make a sarcastic point. But he wasn't convincing anyone. File that under 'not ideal'.
Now, let's not be too unfair to Potter.
Just because he has the name of a very active member of your local neighbourhood watch group and looks a bit like a school teacher, that doesn't mean he's boring. But… y'know… he's not necessarily the most arresting sight on the touchline at West Ham. Very much a 'fist pump and back down to business' man when his side score, these days.
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He does have his moments, though: a few years ago, when he was at Brighton, he felt the need to apologise to Guardiola after some quite lively celebrations following a comeback 3-2 win. 'It wasn't my finest hour, I have to apologise,' he said 'It was not meant with any intent, it was an emotional response and wasn't a good one.'
Now here's a man who knows how to mark a victory.
Pereira's most prominent form of celebration comes after games, his habit of joining Wolves fans in the pub following a victory now the stuff of minor legend. But he can also express joy without a pint in his hand: he's an emotional man, and this video of him during Wolves' recent win over Spurs shows him trying to desperately suppress those emotions and remain professional, but admirably failing on several occasions.