Ok, today has been weird with Phil Neville trending on Twitter around the world.  Not what or who you would expect on a normal Thursday for football in the UK.

Why has this happened?  Well it did start off with the player everyone has been talking about with his superstar showing for Spurs against Inter Milan last night.  But instead of Gareth Bale trending when we got into work this morning it was Phil (and also Maicon to start with).

The answer to the riddle is that between Bale’s terrorising of the Inter Milan defence in the Champions League.  Good old Phil Neville, now 35 years old, kept the flying winger quiet in Everton’s 1-1 draw on Sunday afternoon (with some help from Seamus Coleman).  His unassuming and almost dull exterior made him the ideal recipient of some twitter humour.

This started a series of Chuck Norris style hero tweets that snowballed and have become a very amusing distraction to the London tube strike and winter weather.

Here are some of the stand outs so far…..

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Phil Neville has allowed to live.

Atheists believe in Phil Neville

Phil Neville doesn’t have a CTRL button on his keyboard, because Phil Neville is always in control

Gareth Bale wasn’t running past Maicon, he was still running away from Phil Neville

If you look in the mirror, in the dark, and say ‘ Phil neville ‘ 3 times, he appears and breaks up the opposition attack.

When Phil Neville crosses the street, the cars have to look both ways.

…and there are many more.

Why has this occurred, apart from his performance against Bale?

A regular daily occurrence on the platform is the attachment of names into film titles for example.  Phil Neville is up there is a list that contains #bandnamesinmovietitles and there is usually something similar appearing in trending topics each day.

We like them because they are a distraction to our daily work lives and make us smile J

This is probably the one and only time we will find Phil Neville as a trending topic in the UK, never mind worldwide, so enjoy it whilst it lasts.