Every game matters in the Premier League title race and every Tweet counts as we analyse social media activity around the action in this week’s Pitch Inspection. Using our bespoke analytics tool, Pitch Social Insight, we take a look at Sunday’s the top of the table clash and Ryan Giggs’ first game in charge of Manchester United, as well as IPL cricket and Heineken Cup rugby.
The successful start on the pitch for Ryan Giggs as manager of Manchester United was echoed on social media over the weekend. While the word “Legend” was one of the most used phrases, ahead of the 4-0 victory over Norwich, positive Sentiment for “Giggs” actually dropped 27% in the hour before kick-off to 68%.
This returned to an average of 98.1% by 8pm following a strong start to his managerial career. United fan and BT Sport presenter @MsMelanieSykes was also one of the top influencers driving the Twitter conversation around Giggs.
While the real talking point of the weekend was Sunday’s eagerly awaited clash between top of the table Liverpool and second placed Chelsea, there was a link between the two fixtures. Interestingly, positive Sentiment around “Mourinho” in relation to the Man Utd hotseat jumped 15% to 73% on Monday, suggesting his winning mentality would be a welcome, if unrealistic, addition to Old Trafford.
The Pepsi IPL 2014 is now in full flow and Essex cricketer Ryan ten Doeschate was one of the most influential commentators on Twitter. “Catch” was a heavily mentioned keyword following Chris Lynn’s athletic dismissal of AB de Villiers:
Meanwhile in rugby, the Heineken Cup reached the semi-final stages with all eyes on discarded England winger Chris Ashton as Saracens rampaged into their first ever Heineken Cup final with a record-breaking demolition of Clermont. Ashton’s try-scoring efforts didn’t seem to hold much sway on social though with average positive sentiment for Ashton jumped just 2% on Saturday (60.8%) despite registering an early try to break the Heineken Cup record of 11 tries in a season.
