Premier League: 5.5m tweets generated by the first nine games of the season

The nine games of the first matchday of the Premier League 2014-15, played on 16 and 17/08/2014, generated a total of 5.5m tweets, said Twitter's British subsidiary on 18/08/2014. Twitter is a social network and micro-blogging platform.

The delayed Burnley and Chelsea match (1-3) played on Monday, 18/08/2014 is not included in these statistics.

Manchester United - Swansea (1-2), the match that opened the 2014-15 season, generated the most tweets of any match: more than 1m from 10 minutes before kick off (at 12:45 BST) until 30 minutes after the final whistle.

This match was the first with Louis Van Gaal at the helm of Manchester United; the Dutch manager generated more tweets than any other person related to Premier League from 16 to 17/08/2014, Twitter reported on 18/08/2014. The company did not specify the number of tweets.

60% of Premier League players in 2014-15 -- about 310 -- have official Twitter handles. Only two of the twenty managers have them: Ronald Koeman (@RonaldKoeman) of Southampton and Garry Monk (@GarryMonk16) of Swansea City.

• In the first half of 2014, Twitter's…