Every footballer loves a goal celebration, whether it be last-minute limbs, or an audacious backflip. Some celebrations can take longer than others, however, and there’s nothing worse than seeing the away team perform their choreographed routine after finding the back of the net.Times are changing, though. Now, if Jessie Lingard, or any player for that matter, decides to turn The Emirates into their personal dance floor, the time they have wasted with their performance will be added on at the end of games.This comes following a change to Law 7 – The Duration of the Match, which will see goal celebrations become a separate cause for additional time.With that said, after the statistics were revealed by The Athletic, we’ve taken a look at last season’s longest celebrators in the Premier League.
Who celebrated for the longest in the Premier League last season?
As per The Athletic, it was, in fact, Crystal Palace who celebrated goals for the longest amount of time, averaging 84.8 seconds. Meanwhile, Newcastle celebrated for the least amount of time, averaging 66.6 seconds.
Interestingly, it was last season’s top goal scorers, Manchester City, who averaged the second least amount of time, with 67.5 seconds. The stat arguably sums up just how ruthless Pep Guardiola’s side can be, as they find the back of the net, before almost instantly gunning for more.
Of course, though, due to the number of goals that City scored last season – 94 to be exact – they were up there for the longest overall time celebrating goals. In total, the treble winners spent 105 minutes and 45 seconds celebrating, coming second to Arsenal’s 119 minutes and 32 seconds.
It’s no surprise then that last season’s lowest goal scorers, Wolverhampton Wanderers, spent the least amount of overall time enjoying their goals, hitting just 40 minutes and 30 seconds.
The numbers can still be flipped, too, with some sides more keen to get the game started after conceding than others, with West Ham United taking an average of 90.2 seconds to get back to the centre circle – the most in the league – and Southampton the most willing to get things back underway, averaging 61.2 seconds. It must be said, though, this did nothing to save their top-flight status.
As the Premier League looks to crack down on time-wasting, the numbers are certainly interesting. Perhaps more crucially is the percentage of time that the ball was in play for each team last season. That’s where the majority of time-killing comes from.
Again revealed by The Athletic, Manchester City had the ball in play for the highest percentage of time, with 62.1%, whilst Newcastle had the ball in play for just 51.8% of games in a damning statistic.
Eddie Howe’s side won’t get away with such numbers quite as well this season, it seems, with the Premier League simply adding extra additional minutes than ever before.
What did De Bruyne say about the injury-time rule change?
Some players haven’t been left too pleased with the extension of games, with Raphael Varane making a statement about his concern over player welfare, and Kevin de Bruyne saying after Manchester City’s Community Shield defeat against Arsenal, via Goal: We spoke to the Arsenal players and even the referees [about it] – they don’t even want to do it, but it’s the new rule and it’s what it is.
“A game like today, even the first half with three minutes extra, you can only guess what’s going to happen if you play a lower team who keep time-wasting all the time.
“Today we played 12 to 13 minutes. I can see games going for 20-25 minutes [extra]. I think this will change in one to two months, but this is the first game. I’m thinking if we play Sevilla in Olympiakos [in the Uefa Super Cup] on Wednesday [16 August] and have 15-20 extra minutes and then play on Saturday again [against Newcastle] it’s like two times extra time. We’ll see how it goes, but it doesn’t make any sense.”