Aston Villa’s Senegalese player Nicolas Jackson’s celebration after scoring a goal against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League drew wide attention as the player did a gladiator-style celebration.
The celebration involved a thumbs-down followed by a head-cutting gesture. Fans have called it one of the coldest celebrations of the season.
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On matchday 5 of the Premier League, Aston Villa beat Tottenham Hotspur at their home stadium 3-2, marking their first Premier League win of the season.
It was in the 67th minute when Zion Suzuki sent a ball that Johan Manzambi collected, followed by laying it off to Nicolas Jackson, who took the opportunity to take a fine touch and shoot it to the far corner, securing a crucial goal for Villa that put them in the lead.
Jackson celebrated his most spectacular goal with the thumbs-down and throat-slash gesture that sent fans erupting.
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Jackson is the third player in the Premier League to pull out of this celebration; before him, Rasmus Højlund and Hugo Ekitike have done this gesture before.
When Rasmus Højlund scored a goal for Manchester United in March 2025 against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, he set the stadium on fire after scoring his opening goal followed by an iconic gesture where he ran to the fans, raised a thumbs-up, quickly flipped it to a thumbs-down, and finished with a cinematic throat-slit gesture inspired by the Gladiator film franchise.
Another footballer who did the same celebration was Hugo Ekitike for Liverpool against West Ham United in March 2026 at Anfield.
After scoring his opening goal in the 5th minute of the match, Ekitike celebrated by pointing his thumb down and rotating it up into a thumbs-up gesture, indicating the Roman emperor’s verdict from the Gladiator movie at the stadium. This match earned him the nickname ” The Gladiator” from his fans.
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Fans are in awe of Nicolas Jackson’s performance in the match against Spurs and are saying he “Aura farmed” through his celebration, which went viral because of its slow, cinematic pacing right into the recording camera.
The 25-year-old striker was signed to Aston Villa from Chelsea through a €55 million summer transfer. Though he did not score in previous matches in the Premier League for the club, he unlocked his true potential in this game and was praised by Unai Emery, team manager of Aston Villa.
“Today, Jackson clearly improved from the previous matches. This is the way, and how he played was an example. It was perhaps the first match in which Jackson showed his full power.”
Fans’ comments have flooded social media where they loved the celebration and termed it as “ pure aura” and “absolute cinematic performance” .
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On the other hand, some fans are distressed by the fact that he used Rasmus Højlund’s and Ekiteke’s celebration, calling him a “copycat” and a showoff for doing a celebration on his first and only goal in the Premier League.
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Nicolas Jackson and Aston Villa now have their next match in the Premier League on 10th October against Brentford. The team is currently in 15th position on the table with 4 points.
