Celebrating the @PremierLeague on Twitter

One of the finest @PremierLeague seasons came to a rousing conclusion on Sunday when Manchester City (@MCFC) pipped Liverpool FC (@LFC) to claim their second league title in three years.

The joy and despair of the moment was shared in real-time on Twitter, with a peak of 49,000 Tweets per minute (TPM) when City were confirmed as champions at 1650 BST.

Sky Blues fans around the world celebrated with the club’s hashtags #Together and #MCFC, which were mentioned more than 250,000 times on Twitter.

And the game had barely ended when City captain @VincentKompany tweeted out a selfie from the tunnel with @JoleonLescott and Joe Hart, which was retweeted or favourited more than 25,000 times.

His team-mates soon got in on the act.

And rock star @NoelGallagher landed the ultimate fan souvenir, Kompany’s captain’s armband.

The mood just up the road in Liverpool was more measured as @LFC fell just short in their bid to end a 24-year title drought.

But that did not stop @Sterling31 and @Luis16Suarez getting in on the selfie act.

And, in the weeks building up to the finale, Liverpool had taken a lead in the Twitter conversation, attracting 123,000 Tweets behind captain Steven Gerrard’s rallying cry #WeGoAgain.

@ChelseaFC and @Arsenal filled the remaining Champions League spots and look set to continue their see-saw rivalry to be the most followed UK team on Twitter. Arsenal retain a slender advantage with 3.78 million followers, compared to 3.76 million for Chelsea.

But both gave up ground to @ManUtd, who added 2.41 million followers in their first season on Twitter.

Breaking big news exclusively first on Twitter was their recipe for success, with news of Juan Mata’s (@juanmata8) arrival at the club being retweeted 49,000 times and news of Moyes’s departure 79,000 times.

Twitter continues to bring football fans closer to the action and the stars than ever before.

Never was this more apparent than for a game between West Ham United and Hull City.

West Ham (@WHUFC_official) dubbed it their first “social media game” and involved Twitter fans in several exciting ways, including a treasure hunt for goalkeeper @AdriSanMiguel’s gloves.

More than half of Premier League players are on Twitter, including eight of the @PFA team of the year: Luke Shaw (@LukeShaw3), Vincent Kompany (@VincentKompany), Gary Cahill (@GaryJCahill), Seamus Coleman (@seamiecoleman23), Eden Hazard (@hazardeden10), Yaya Toure (@Toure_yaya42), Luis Suarez (@luis16suarez) and Daniel Sturridge (@D_Sturridge).

And, for the first time, the league has managers actively tweeting in West Brom’s Pepe Mel (@pepe_mel) and Swansea City’s (@SwansOfficial) Garry Monk (@garrymonk16).

Another manager, @Everton’s Roberto Martinez, was at the heart of a memorable #OnlyOnTwitter moment in February.

When lifelong Toffees fan @ric_wee travelled from Malaysia to watch a game at Goodison Park for the first time, he had his hopes dashed by a freak winter storm and a postponement.

Instead of going home disappointed, Martinez and Leighton Baines, who had been made aware of Wee’s plight via Twitter, invited him down to the player’s area for a special meeting.

Meanwhile, @SouthamptonFC, revelling in one their most successful seasons, repaid fans by using the #TwitterMirror (which takes selfies at exclusive events around the world) to publish behind-the-scenes photos at their end-of-season awards and from the tunnel at their last home game against @ManUtd.

England full-back @LukeShaw3 led the way in this Vine video.

And then everyone got involved.

@Southampton Mirror

The @PremierLeague gives way to the @FifaWorldCup for five weeks this summer.

But its players and fans will be back #Together on Twitter soon enough, when season 2014/15 starts up and promoted Leicester City (@OfficialFoxes) Burnley (@BurnleyOfficial), plus one of Derby County (@dcfcofficial), QPR (@OfficialQPR) and Wigan Athletic (@LaticsOfficial) will emerge victorious from the play-offs.

On 16 August, #WeGoAgain.