Tottenham Hotspur’s James Maddison opened the scoring in their Premier League outing against Manchester United and produced a ‘shush’ celebration for the camera – and supporters have theorised who the Englishman was referencing as he wheeled away in delight.

The two sides met in north London on Sunday afternoon – with the winner leapfrogging Everton and Crystal Palace into 12th place – and Ange Postecoglou’s men drew first blood in the 13th minute as Ruben Amorim and his entourage stared down the barrel.

The midfielder, formerly of Leicester City, pounced the quickest on Andre Onana’s weak parry and slotted it into the Cameroonian’s net after he struggled to contain the tame shot of Lucas Bergvall – but Maddison’s post-goal celebration has got fans talking.

 appearances for Tottenham, Maddison has notched 14 goals and 15 assists.

As alluded to, the celebration has quickly become a talking point on social media as, after producing his trademark dart-throwing celebration, he stared directly down the camera lens with his finger to his lips. And fans online believe that it was directed towards Roy Keane after his not-so subtle dig at Maddison, one of the highest-paid English footballers in the world.

Keane, when discussing which Tottenham returnees could help them see an upturn in performances and results, questioned whether Maddison, 28, could be that man for an under-fire Postecoglou. On the most recent episode of The Overlap, the midfielder-turned-pundit said:

Hold on a second. 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, he’s about to 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 top six, you’re in cuckoo land!” Keane continued as Gary Neville and Ian Wright were quick to apologise for their co-host’s remarks.

He continued: “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, he can’t even get in that! Don’t kid yourselves everybody.”

In response, fans have taken to X (formerly Twitter) to suggest that Keane’s previous comments are the fuel behind Maddison’s celebration. One said: “Roy Keane threw shade. Maddison kept receipts. And he answered that call today. That celebration was personal.”

James Maddison puts his finger to his lips at the camera after his goal celebration. You would assume that’s for Roy Keane.

“Maddison with a message to Roy Keane.” another fan simply added, before a fourth insisted that the timing of his celebration is rather coincidental. “Maddison scoring and shhing the camera the same week Roy Keane slated him on The Overlap is a serious coincidence isn’t it.”