When one becomes a fan of the English Premier League -- a trend that has been increasing globally in recent years -- an important decision must be made: Which team to support?
Well, Twitter recently collected and mapped all the followers of Premier League teams on its social media platform, showing which teams, and where, are most popular throughout the world via this interactive tool:
Some takeaways:
• Arsenal rules America, with 21.08 percent of fans rightfully choosing the Gunners ahead of likely 2015 champion Chelsea (19.68) and Manchester United (18.02). Arsenal makes its biggest gains on the coasts, with Chelsea and Man United having more of a hold on the Midwest and Mountain West.
• Liverpool is fourth in the U.S. at 13.23 percent, winning only a few scattered regions throughout the country. One of those is not Boston, despite the club sharing owners (the Fenway Group) with the Red Sox.
• Defending champion Manchester City (8.98 percent) is fifth in America, followed by Tottenham (5.2). Everton is seventh with just 2.69 percent, despite boasting U.S. keeper Tim Howard and, not long ago, American star Landon Donovan. Newcastle (1.66), West Ham (1.28) and Aston Villa (1.17) compose the rest of the top 10.• As America goes the world? Or maybe it's the other way around ... or the fact that Twitter was invented here. No matter what the explanation, the U.S. and world top 10 rankings line up perfectly: Arsenal is most popular with 5.68 million followers worldwide, followed by Chelsea (5.49 million), Manchester United (4.88 million) and Liverpool (4.22 million), with defending champion Manchester City (2.43 million) rounding out the top five and Tottenham (1.09 million) the only other club with more than a million followers.
• As America goes Canada? The U.S.'s neighbor to the north has the exact same top 10.
• Mexico, though, is Chelsea territory, with 30.62 percent of its fans choosing to incorrectly support the Blues, ahead of 21.51 percent for Arsenal, 15.76 percent for Liverpool and a surprisingly low 15.63 percent for Man United, which employs Mexican star Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez (although he is currently out of favor with the club and on loan with Real Madrid).
That's just America and its nearest neighbors. So much more information about the world can be gleaned from this map, so check it out yourself.
Note: This writer apologizes for any editorializing in this text. People are free to make their own choices; some are just righter than others.
