So who's the most supported team in the UAE then?

This new interactive map, created by Twitter shows levels of support for each Premier League team in countries around the world and it seems this weekend’s Arsenal v Chelsea game will be a huge deal for the Middle East.

Twitter have said, “The map was created by looking at the official Twitter accounts for each team, using their followers as an indicator of allegiance as opposed to, say, instances in which people mention a team while watching an interesting matchup or talking about a team’s rival.”

It transpires that Arsenal are the most followed team in the UAE, (despite the obvious Man City connection) with Chelsea second. Arsenal are also the most popular team in Qatar, Iran and Bahrain. Meanwhile Chelsea are most popular in Saudi, Oman, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and The West Bank. In fact, there’s not one country in the region where a team other than Arsenal or Chelsea are the most followed.

The full table based on Twitter followers from the UAE is below and, perhaps significantly, it doesn’t deviate too much from the actual Premier League table.

1) Arsenal 19.04%
2) Chelsea 18.10%
3) Man City 17.57%
4) Man Utd 16.00%
5) Liverpool 11.25%
6) Tottenham 3.77%
7) Everton 1.90%
8) Newcastle 1.71%
9) Aston Villa 1.31%
10) West Ham 1.30%
11) Southampton 1.19%
12) Swansea 1.16%
13) Sunderland 1.09%
14) Stoke 1.06%
15) QPR 0.94%
16) West Brom 0.78%
17) Hull 0.66%
18) Crystal Palace 0.59%
19) Leicester 0.31%
20) Burnley 0.26%