Which Premier League Team Celebrate the Best?

Whether it’s for a milestone birthday, wedding anniversary or a new job, us Brits know how to celebrate in style. That said, football fans will tell you there’s very little that compares to the scenes that transpire when your team scores an important goal.

With the Premier League entering its 30th year we wanted to find out which current team spends the longest amount of time celebrating a goal. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City might be the defending league champions but are their goal celebrations worthy of winners?

The goal celebration specialists

While here at Funky Pigeon we pride ourselves on being the experts at supplying cards and gifts, it’s actually Leeds United who can lay claim to being the celebration specialists. That’s right, having analysed the aftermath of more than 250 goals scored in the Premier League last season, it was the Yorkshire club who were found to be the team who spent the longest time celebrating.

On average, Leeds’ players spend 69.87 seconds celebrating a goal. Having scored a total of 42 goals last season that equates to almost 49 minutes of celebrations which is longer than a half of football!

Running Leeds close with their passion was Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa. Villa’s players celebrate their goals for an average of 69.40 seconds. In third was Newcastle United who clearly cherish every moment they spend celebrating in front of the Toon Army.

Perhaps surprisingly, at the other end of the table was 2021/22 champions Manchester City. Players in the blue half of Manchester spend more than 10 seconds less celebrating each of their goals than table toppers Leeds United. With an average celebration time of 56.27 seconds, Pep Guardiola’s men sit bottom of the goal celebration league table.

The goal celebration league table


Rank	Team	Avg time spent celebrating (in seconds)
1	Leeds United	69.87
2	Aston Villa	69.40
3	Newcastle United	69.00
4	Arsenal	68.87
5	Manchester United	65.20
6	Wolverhampton Wanderers	64.27
7	West Ham United	63.53
8≈	Crystal Palace	62.73
8≈	Brentford	62.73
10≈	Leicester City	61.33
10≈	Tottenham Hotspur	61.33
12	Brighton & Hove Albion	61.00
13	Chelsea	59.40
14	Southampton	59.33
15	Liverpool	57.80
16	Everton	57.33
17	Manchester City	56.27

Also featuring in the bottom three is FA Cup & Carabao Cup holders Liverpool!

Taking into account the goals scored by every team, the average time for celebrating a goal in the Premier League is 62.91 seconds. With referees under strict orders to increase the amount of time the ball is in play for this season, the length of goal celebrations may be one of the first things they crack down on.

A focus on the top goalscorers

From Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Siu’ jump to Mohamed Salah’s prayer, there are plenty of iconic celebrations in the Premier League. While Leeds may be the team who spends the longest amount of time celebrating a goal we also wanted to discover which individual player ranks top as well.

Having taken a deep dive into more than 80 goals scored across each teams’ top goalscorer last season, we can reveal Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka enjoys celebrating his goals more than any other player. The Englishman spends a whopping 78.60 seconds whipping up the Emirates faithful. Having spent more than 14 minutes celebrating his goals last season, Saka will no doubt be hoping to top his tally of 11 goals this campaign.

Rather predictably it’s Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo who ranks in second place. The Portuguese star who is renowned for his ‘siu’ celebration where he runs, jumps and then turns with his arms outstretched, before shouting the word ‘siuuuu’ celebrates his goals for 72.60 seconds.


Rank	Player	Team	Avg time spent celebrating (in seconds)
1	Bukayo Saka	Arsenal	78.60
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	72.60
3	Ivan Toney	Brentford	68.60
4	Callum Wilson	Newcastle United	67.00
5	Wilfried Zaha	Crystal Palace	66.80
6	Mason Mount	Chelsea	65.60
7	Kevin De Bruyne	Manchester City	63.20
8≈	Son Heung-min	Tottenham Hotspur	63.00
8≈	Jarrod Bowen	West Ham United	63.00
10	Jamie Vardy	Leicester City	62.20
11	Leandro Trossard	Brighton Hove & Albion	61.25
12	Raúl Jiménez	Wolverhampton Wanderers	59.80
13≈	Raphinha	Leeds United	58.60
13≈	Mohamed Salah	Liverpool	58.60
15	Ollie Watkins	Aston Villa	57.40
16	James Ward-Prowse	Southampton	50.60
17	Richarlison	Everton	50.20

Taking bottom spot for his celebrations is former Everton, now Spurs forward Richarlison. The Brazilian spends just over 50 seconds celebrating his goals, which is a staggering 20 seconds less than celebration specialists Bukayo Saka and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Despite sharing last season’s golden boot with Mo Salah, Son Heung-Min wasn’t to be outdone by the Egyptian when it comes to celebrating. The Tottenham ace spends more than 4 seconds extra celebrating each of his goals than his Liverpool counterpart.

Will anyone be able to top the extravagant celebrations of Bukayo Saka this season or will the referees turn into the ultimate party poopers by penalising teams for their passionate celebrations?

Methodology

To work out the team who spends the longest amount of time celebrating a goal we collected data for 15 goals scored by each team in the Premier League.

Data was collected on matchday 34 of last season and we worked back through previous match days until we had collected data for 15 goals from each team. For each goal we timed how long it took for the game to restart after a goal had been scored. Goals where restarts were delayed due to a VAR check or a substitution were discounted.

The three teams who were relegated from the Premier League last season were excluded from the study.

To work out the player who spends the longest amount of time celebrating a goal we collected data for 5 goals scored by each Premier League team’s top goalscorer last season. The same method as above was then applied.