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When Madonna turned up at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, the immediate question that needed to be answered was: ‘Why?’.

Was the Queen of Pop merely causing a commotion? Or was she looking to justify her love as a true blue? OK, we’ll stop now.

Anyway, it turns out Madonna might just actually be some sort of Chelsea fan. She had also been at the stadium for other games, including last year to watch a 4-2 win against Brighton & Hove Albion with her partner Akeem Morris, and the internet suggests her allegiance may date back to her marriage to proper Shed Ender, film-maker Guy Ritchie.

Whether she truly knows her stuff and listens to Straight Outta Cobham every week, or if she thinks Diego Costa is a kind of coffee drink and that Willian was in the Black Eyed Peas, is unknown.

It may have been a surprise for armchair viewers to see her at the weekend’s 2-1 defeat of champions Liverpool, but not for UK broadcaster Sky Sports, for whom celeb-spotting is an important part of matchday coverage.

A floor manager based at a given top-flight ground on the day of a game will generally be aware of any famous faces due to attend, either getting their information directly from the clubs or from the Premier League match manager in attendance.

Teams are almost always aware of who is going to turn up. Your Madonnas, your Usain Bolts, your Ed Sheerans, they’re kind of a big deal in certain circles and come with their own security risks, so clubs need to know ahead of time.

They’re also unlikely to be sat in with the great unwashed, much to the alleged annoyance of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who last year bemoaned that he can no longer use his normal seats to watch Arsenal home games at the Emirates Stadium, having to accept flashy corporate hospitality from the north London club instead due to security reasons. Annoying.

Commentators will also be given a heads-up by the production team about which celebs are in the house, so they can 1) potentially research who on earth said famous person is and 2) prepare a witty line or a delicious pun for the moment their face flashes up on screen. Singer Niall Horan (actually a supporter of Championship side Derby County) was shown at Brentford vs Manchester City on Sunday, for example, and if the commentator didn’t say, ‘Horan is a Derby fan but he’s only looking in one direction today’, or similar, well, you’d be disappointed.

Sometimes, if the celeb is big-time enough, a camera may be trained on them for much of the match to make sure TV captures those all-important goal celebration moments (and then we can all judge how real or fake they look). Ryan Reynolds at Wrexham and future king Prince William at Aston Villa would be two examples of this, with the director keeping a close eye on the feed from that camera for, well, any particularly fascinating facial expressions.

Camera operators will also scan the executive seats for anyone famous who has turned up unannounced. They’ll also be looking for injured players who are sitting up in the stands, or perhaps prospective new signings — even potential new managers of one of the teams involved. It’s important to double-check the latter are who you think they are, though, such as when Sky Sports reporter Patrick Davison thought he was speaking to prospective new Huddersfield Town manager Jan Siewert, only to find it was plain old Martin from Wakefield.

Those famous faces will sometimes be used to help tell the story of the match: Sir Alex Ferguson may not quite qualify as a celebrity fan, but either way, you can bet that if Manchester United are losing in the 90th minute, a camera will focus intently on his face for any signs of anger. Or disappointment (much worse).

A general rule of thumb is the more high-profile the club, the more celebrity fans they attract.

Chelsea are a fashionable, globally-renowned international outfit and a little on the aristocratic side, ergo their fans include not just Madonna, but also, with varying levels of substantiability, former presidents and prime ministers in Bill Clinton (who apparently attended matches in the 1960s when at university in England) and John Major, plus Cara Delevingne, Jeremy Clarkson and Gordon Ramsay, as well as proper legacy fans Damon Albarn, Suggs out of Madness and Michael Caine.

That list says a lot about Chelsea’s past and present, as does the Bournemouth celebrity fan list, which, like the list of Bournemouth fans full-stop, is pretty short. Blur’s bass player Alex James is pretty much it.

Staying in west London, the identity of Fulham’s three most prominent fans probably speaks volumes about the stereotypical Fulham supporter: Hugh Grant, Richard Osman and Lily Allen. No elocution lessons required.

Sometimes, a celeb fan can reflect a club’s growing status. Claudia Schiffer probably didn’t stand on the Griffin Park terraces and admire Alan Judge’s tricky wing play, but since her husband Matthew Vaughn invested in the club earlier this year, the world-famous supermodel has been spotted, in a Brentford shirt, at their Gtech Community Stadium. What an age we live in.

In terms of who the proper, bona fide celebrity football fans are — as in the ones who actually have history with a club and have been known to attend either some or many matches — they include, in no particular order: Tom Hanks (Villa), Rory McIlroy (Manchester United), Ant & Dec (Newcastle), Stuart Broad (Nottingham Forest), Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook (Brighton) Sergio Pizzorno from Kasabian (Leicester), Tommy Fleetwood (Everton), Michael McIntyre (Tottenham), Russell Crowe (Leeds) and Daniel Craig (Liverpool).

And some, despite their lofty celebrity status and/or busy schedules, remain proper die-hards. Radio DJ Jordan North is still a regular at Turf Moor to watch Burnley, while former Labour strategist Alastair Campbell is also a staunch fan of that club.

Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has been a regular at Wolves games for decades. He used to have a season ticket, rubbing elbows with Joe Public in the Steve Bull Stand, but since becoming club vice-president has upgraded to the front row of the Molineux directors’ box. Either way, his hair can be seen from any point in the stadium.

Arguably, the most famous die-hard supporter of any Premier League team is Oasis guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher.

He may not be at the Etihad Stadium every week (apparently he’s had a busy few months) but will often be seen at matches, even in the away end, and while he may not enjoy doing the Poznan, he certainly knows his stuff, as anyone who heard his commentary stint on TNT Sports for Manchester City’s Champions League game at Sporting CP last season will attest to.

City next play Chelsea in January, when Gallagher and Madonna will no doubt debate whether Raheem Sterling fulfilled his career potential over a half-time pint. Quite the image.