NEW YORK -- Novak Djokovic's left shoulder was aching, his chances were fading in the fourth round against Stan Wawrinka and, soon enough, the US Open's defending champion and No. 1 seed was out of the tournament, leaving to a chorus of boos.

Djokovic shook his head as he walked over to the chair umpire to say he was retiring from the match because of that shoulder while trailing 6-4, 7-5, 2-1 and being thoroughly outplayed Sunday night.

"The pain was constant for weeks now," Djokovic said.

Perhaps confused by the sudden turn of events, and likely disappointed in the brevity of the show they got to watch for their expensive tickets, some spectators jeered as Djokovic walked off the court in Arthur Ashe Stadium to head toward the locker room, his two equipment bags over his other shoulder. He responded with a thumbs-up.

"I'm sorry for the crowd. Obviously, they came to see a full match, and just wasn't to be," Djokovic said at his news conference. "I mean, a lot of people didn't know what's happening, so you cannot blame them."

The 32-year-old Serb explained that he had been "taking different stuff to kill the pain instantly; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

Djokovic had won 36 of his past 37 Grand Slam matches, and four of the past five major titles, in one of the most dominant stretches the sport has seen. That pushed his Slam trophy total to 16, moving within four of Roger Federer's record 20 and within two of Rafael Nadal's 18.

"Look, it's no secret that I have, of course, desire and a goal to reach the most Slams, and reach Roger's record. But at the same time, it's a long road ahead hopefully for me. I hope I can play for many more years. I'm planning to. I mean, I don't see an end behind the corner at all," said Djokovic, who had been 11-0 in fourth-rounders at Flushing Meadows until this one. "Now it's a matter of keeping my body and mind in shape and trying to still peak at these kind of events that are majors and that are the most significant in our sport."

When it was over, Wawrinka gave Djokovic a hug.

"It's never the way you want to finish the match," said the No. 23-seeded Wawrinka, who will face No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals. "I feel sorry for Novak."

Djokovic entered the night with a 19-5 head-to-head edge against Wawrinka across their careers. This, though, was their first meeting since the 2016 US Open final, won by Wawrinka.

According to the ATP, this was the 13th mid-match retirement of Djokovic's career, his sixth at a Grand Slam tournament.

This outcome scuttles the much-discussed possibility of a semifinal in New York between Djokovic and Federer, which would have been a rematch of their historic Wimbledon final in July. Djokovic won that one in an unprecedented fifth-set tiebreaker after nearly five hours.

The winner of Wawrinka vs. Medvedev will face the winner of Federer vs. Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals.

Djokovic began complaining about his left shoulder during a second-round victory on Wednesday, when he repeatedly got massaged by a trainer during changeovers.

He won his next match Friday, looking good and declaring his shoulder much improved, although he refused to disclose any details of the injury or what type of treatment he had received.

While Djokovic is a righty, he uses his left arm for the ball tosses on his serves and to grip the racket for his two-fisted backhands.

His bid for a fourth US Open championship suddenly dissipated Sunday at the conclusion of what for him amounted to a listless and ineffective effort.

Against Wawrinka, a three-time major champion himself, Djokovic never quite had the usual verve on his shots or range on his formidable service returns. He was out of sorts on all manner of shots, accumulating 30 unforced errors and only 12 winners through the first two sets.

"For sure, I could see some little [signs] that he was in trouble," Wawrinka said.

Djokovic managed to lead 3-0 and 4-1 in the second set, but that was just about all he had in him. Soon he was trying to take shortcuts to avoid lengthy points, and nothing was working.

When that set ended, Djokovic had a trainer on for a massage, but soon thereafter, his title defense was over.

"You just know when you know, I guess," Djokovic said, "when you feel like you're not able to hit [a] shot anymore."

We were sitting in the press box at Wrigley Field on Sunday watching a no-hitter -- of sorts. Milwaukee's Gio Gonzalez hadn't allowed a hit in three innings against the Cubs, but he had walked four, and even if he hadn't you knew that once Chicago reached its third time through the order, Brewers manager Craig Counsell would yank him. Indeed, Gonzalez was gone in the fourth in favor of a pinch-hitter, with a goose egg still on his pitching line under the hits category. It was a fairly obvious move, but even if it wasn't, we've been increasingly conditioned to understand that there are more important things in today's baseball than no-hitters.

When Gonzalez departed, it was about the exact moment when, on my iPad, we watched Toronto's Bo Bichette bounce one to third base on the 120th pitch from Astros ace Justin Verlander, giving the future Hall of Famer his third career no-hitter. And you couldn't help but think that, in these days of openers, five-inning starters and combined no-nos, that, right there, is what domination looks like. And you thought that is what the very concept of the ace starter means to this sport. Above all, when you watched Verlander break into a smile and thrust both arms into the air, you also knew that no one in today's game, save for the possible exception of Washington's Max Scherzer, typifies the archetype of the ace more than Justin Verlander.

Verlander's outing was emphatic even by the standards of a no-hitter. He walked Cavan Biggio, the second batter he saw, and that was it. Verlander faced 28 batters and struck out 14 of them, tied for the eighth-most Ks in a no-hitter. His game score (98) is tied for 13th among nine-inning no-nos. It's the best game score for any pitcher this season and the best of his career.

Every no-hitter seems to carry with it its own quirky set of factoids, and this one is no different. First of all, it's Verlander's third career no-hitter, a total topped in baseball history by only Nolan Ryan (7) and Sandy Koufax (4), and matched by Bob Feller, Larry Corcoran and Cy Young (whose name we'll be bringing up again in a bit).

Of Verlander's three no-nos, two of them have come at the Rogers Centre, which is two more no-hitters than any Blue Jays pitcher has ever thrown. Only Ryan (three) has thrown more road no-hitters than Verlander's two. At 36, he becomes the oldest hurler to throw a no-hitter since Randy Johnson in 2004. (All factoids via ESPN Stats & Info.)

With the historic outing, Verlander puts up another big, flashing datapoint in a couple of different pursuits, one short-term and the other down the line. The near-term chase is this year's AL Cy Young race, in which Verlander was probably already the front-runner even before shutting down the Blue Jays. He is in a tight group in terms of WAR -- both the FanGraphs and Baseball Reference versions -- with Texas' Mike Minor and Lance Lynn, Chicago's Lucas Giolito and Verlander's rotation-mate Gerrit Cole. He leads the AL in win probability added.

In the traditional pitching Triple Crown categories, Verlander is now tied for the big league lead in wins (17, with the Yankees' Domingo German), leads the AL with a 2.56 ERA and, at least for the time being, has surpassed Cole with a big league-leading 257 strikeouts. Now you drop a no-hitter-shaped cherry on top of that sundae, and it's likely going to take a September collapse to turn voters' heads elsewhere. If he gets the Cy, Verlander would join a select group of 19 pitchers to win the honor more than once.

Which brings us to the longer-term chase for Verlander, the baseball version of a marathon, the slow but steady race with a finish line laid out along Main Street in Cooperstown, New York. Verlander almost certainly had achieved no-brainer status even before Sunday, but now he's in the process of climbing the various tiers on which his immortal future teammates reside.

With the 14 Ks, Verlander has reached 2,963 in his career and it now looks all but certain that before the season is over, he'll become the 18th pitcher to crack 3,000. He's now won 221 games and given his stated desire to pitch until he's 45, and the amazing trajectory he's shown through his mid-30s, it appears more and more likely that the membership of the 300-win club has not permanently been closed. He's been AL Rookie of the Year, has one AL Cy Young award (and counting), won the league's MVP trophy in 2011 and has extended his excellence into the postseason, where he has one World Series ring (and counting) and 13 wins.

As for that aforementioned trajectory, it continues to be all but unprecedented and perhaps is the most amazing aspect of Verlander, circa 2019. Since he was traded to the Astros from the Tigers late in the 2017 season, he leads the AL in innings, wins, ERA, WHIP, strikeouts and opponent batting average. His no-hitter was not one of those late-career marvels from a beloved veteran (think Dwight Gooden or Fernando Valenzuela) who has a big day with at 'em balls and guile. He mowed through the Blue Jays with 97-98 mph four-seamers and wipeout sliders. He looks as good right now, nearly 15 years into his career, as he ever has.

Verlander has been in the headlines a couple of times this season for less-than-ideal reasons, first bemoaning the spate of home runs in baseball and suggesting it was intentional, then later causing a sensation by refusing to conduct a postgame news conference if a writer he's beefing with was present. When things like that happen, it invariably triggers a social media backlash and a few days' worth of talking-head debates. And in the end, you're left wondering why we even care.

On Sunday, Verlander reminded us why we care. It's because he's one of the biggest stars in his chosen profession, and in his specific vocation -- pitching -- few have ever done it better.

The ace is dead? As long as Justin Verlander is around, the ace lives on. And the game is better because of it.

ORRVILLE, Ohio – Rain which invaded just after the 4 o’clock hour and returned just after the 7 o’clock hour forced the cancellation of Sunday night’s Pete Jacobs Memorial.

The weather left Wayne County Speedway grounds heavily saturated, with little to no drying time available, forcing Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 and Wayne County Speedway officials to make the tough call.

There were 32 cars signed in for action when the rain returned.

Tony Stewart’s All Stars will return to ‘Orrville’s Historic Oval’ on Monday, September 2. The Labor Day visit will award a $5,000 top prize.

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Blancpain GT World Challenge America Ferrari drivers Toni Vilander and Daniel Serra were victorious for the second-straight day Sunday at Watkins Glen Int’l.

Sunday’s race also saw repeat wins from Acura team drivers Dane Cameron and Mike Hedlund in Pro/Am and Ferrari drivers Martin Fuentes and Mark Issa in the Am class.

Championship leader and pole sitter Vilander led the field to the green in his No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 and drag raced down the front straight with Maxime Soulet. Soulet was able to nose ahead and take the lead through turn one. Cameron slotted in behind Vilander in third.

Drama ensued as the leaders headed to turn eight on the first lap. Vilander was able to get underneath Soulet as the two entered the right hander and the two contacted with Soulet’s Bentley spinning and Vilander continuing through into the lead. Soulet gathered his No. 3 machine and re-entered the track but not before a substantial number of competitors had passed.

At the completion of lap one, Vilander led Cameron and Pro/Am driver Kyle Marcelli. Fuentes slotted in 12th overall and tops in the Am division. By lap three, Pro division pilot Scott Hargrove was on a charge moving up four positions to slot into fourth overall behind Marcelli.

Through lap 20 the leaders in all categories held their positions with Vilander growing his overall lead over Cameron by over two seconds.

At the 50-minute mark of the race the pit lane opened for driver changes and Soulet brought his No. 3 machine in first to change over to partner Rodrigo Baptista. K-PAX Racing’s second entry, with Andy Soucek behind the wheel of the No. 9 Bentley Continental GT3, came in shortly after for Alvaro Parente to assume the reins.

Vilander and Hargrove brought their cars in a lap later to change over to Serra and Patrick Long, respectively. Cameron and Marcelli stayed out on track until near the close of the pit window when both came in to change over to partners Hedlund and Martin Barkey, respectively.

By lap 30 with the pit window closed, and driver changes completed, Hedlund held the overall lead and top spot in the Pro/Am division with Serra, Parente and Long in pursuit. Issa who had taken over for Fuentes slotted into 13th overall maintaining the lead in Am.

By lap 31, the top three dueled for position with Hedlund defending the lead over Serra and Parente looking for a way around the Ferrari driver for second. Then on lap 33, Serra squeezed by Hedlund for the lead through turns 8 and 9 with Parente following into second.

That set up a 28-minute duel to the checkered between the Ferrari and Bentley drivers. Long then made it a Ferrari, Bentley and Porsche duel passing Hedlund on lap 34. By lap 39 the leaders began to encounter lap traffic closing the gap between the top three and bringing Baptista, who had passed Hedlund, into the picture in fourth.

Serra effectively managed lap traffic and was able to hold off any challenges from Parente extending his gap in front, while on lap 41 Baptista passed Long through the bus stop complex moving into third overall. Hedlund remained in fifth overall leading in Pro/Am, while Issa maintained his 13th overall position leading in Am.

By lap 42, Serra had cleared lap traffic and increased his gap over Parente to .800 seconds. Parente was unable to close the gap back up and at the checkered, the Ferrari driver crossed the line ahead of the Bentley driver by 3.99 seconds, with Baptista, Long and Hedlund closing out the top five.

“What was supposed to be an easy stint for me became like qualifying every lap,” said Serra. “We lost a bit of time on the pit stop and when I got back out, I was behind Hedlund. It was difficult to overtake him because he had much more speed than us on the straight, even when I was in the draft. I had to wait for a mistake or something like that and in turn 8 he went wide and I was able to overtake him. I was pushing and couldn’t put a gap to Parente. It was a nice stint, it’s good to come here and help the team and Toni (Vilander) extend the lead so I’m satisfied.”

With the win, Vilander leaves Watkins Glen with a 21-point lead over Parente and Soucek in the driver’s championship. K-PAX Racing leads R. Ferri Motorsport in the push for the team championship by nine points. Bentley leads Ferrari by six points in the manufacturer’s championships.

Barkey and Marcelli lead the Pro/Am driver’s championship with 143 points each, while Fuentes has a dominating lead in the Am category driver’s championship with 175 points.

OSWEGO, N.Y. – In the ageless Aesop fable The Tortoise and the Hare, the former of the two combatants ended up celebrating a victory by remaining slow and steady across the race distance.

However, Sunday night at Oswego Speedway, seventeen-year-old Tyler Thompson turned that classic script on its head and wrote his own page of history at the five-eighths-mile oval in the process.

Thompson stunned the supermodified world by demolishing the field to win the 63rd annual Budweiser Int’l Classic. The Fulton, N.Y. teenager was a rabbit from the word go, blasting past polesitter Brandon Bellinger on lap 11 of the 200-lapper and never looking back as he opened up a near half-track advantage at times through the race.

Though various combatants closed to within a few car lengths at times during the afternoon, no one had anything for Thompson, who led the final 190 laps uncontested en route to his first Classic victory.

It marked the second-career supermodified win at Oswego for Thompson, who triumphed Aug. 10 at the Steel Palace to become the youngest winner in the 68-year history of the facility.

Sunday’s victory gave Thompson one more notch on his growing resume: that of the youngest Classic champion in the marquee event’s 63-year tenure.

“This is truly amazing,” a breathless Thompson said in victory lane. “I’m just speechless right now.”

Thompson started fifth, but it was clear from the drop of the green flag that his neon-trimmed No. 98 was the car to beat. He went from fourth to the lead in a three-lap sequence, passing Joe Gosek, Dave Jeff Abold and Bellinger in quick succession between the ninth and 11th revolutions.

After that, it was as if Thompson had brought a gun to a knife-fight, despite seven restarts that he had to navigate between the time that he took the race lead and the time that the checkered flag waved.

Each time, however – whether he had a buffer of lapped cars between himself and second place or, like in the late laps, he had Dave Shullick Jr. on his tail – Thompson was able to pull away from the field.

Thompson even made controlling the gap look effortless, thanks in part to guidance from the infield.

“I had one of my guys, Doug, down here the whole time,” Thompson said. “He helped me through this race and that, combined with a really, really fast car, is what made it all happen for us today.”

Sunday’s score was one, Thompson noted, that went according to plan – just not the plan he intended on using at the start of the weekend.

“Getting out front and trying to run away wasn’t what I wanted to do coming into this, but then I checked the forecast and I saw some rain,” Thompson recalled. “I said to myself, ‘well, it’s like a 50-50 shot (that it would rain), so I’ll just go for it and see what happens.’

“I can’t believe it actually worked.”

Shullick spent the entire second half of the race chasing Thompson, taking second from Bellinger on lap 101 and trying every trick in the book to track down the leading No. 98.

A final restart with 20 to go, set up after Lou LeVea Jr. found the turn one wall four laps prior, gave Shullick a final shot to try and motor around the outside, but Thompson was simply too strong.

“That was a good run. Our car was excellent,” noted Shullick. “A half to three quarters of the way through the race, I was cruising and I thought I had the car to beat … because I saw him (Thompson) up running up front and I was like, ‘there’s no way he’s gonna make it. There’s no way.’ And then finally, at about lap 180. I’m like, ‘he might actually make it.’

“We had to turn up the wick there at the end, but he had just enough to hold me off, so hats off to him and his whole crew,” Shullick added. “That thing they had was a bullet tonight.”

Michael Barnes completed the podium, his fifth-straight top-three finish in Classic competition, with Jeff Abold and Doug Didero following in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Bellinger faded from the pole to sixth at the finish after leading the first 10 laps, ahead of Chris Perley, Alison Sload, Michael Muldoon and Keith Shampine.

Recently-crowned track champion Otto Sitterly, who was running third inside of the final 20 laps, was forced to pit road with nine to go with a broken transfer arm. He ended up 16th in the official results.

As for Thompson, tears pricked his eyes as the reality of his accomplishment began to set in.

“Man, I’m feeling a whole lot of emotions,” he admitted. “I’m happy now, but about halfway through that race, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’ve got it.’ By the end of it, though, I was like, ‘OK, this is a little bit better.’

“To be a Classic champion is beyond my wildest dreams and I’m just so grateful for everyone’s support.”

The finish:

Tyler Thompson, Dave Shullick Jr., Michael Barnes, Jeff Abold, Doug Didero, Brandon Bellinger, Chris Perley, Alison Sload, Michael Muldoon, Keith Shampine, Ben Seitz, Logan Rayvals, Jack Patrick, Camden Proud, Dan Connors, Otto Sitterly, Jamie Timmons, Jerry Curran, Dave McKnight, Bobby Santos, Dave Gruel, Davey Hamilton, Brian Osetek, Lou LeVea Jr., Dave Danzer, Hal Latulip, Joe Gosek, Tim Snyder, Dan Bowes, Bob Bond, Todd Stowell, Lou LeVea Sr., Jason Spaulding, Aric Iosue.

Restricted free agent Ivan Barbashev agreed to terms with the St. Louis Blues on a two-year contract worth an annual average value of $1.475 million, the team announced Sunday.

Barbashev, 23, played in 80 games for the Blues in their Stanley Cup season of 2018-19, recording 14 goals and 12 assists for 26 points -- all career highs.

The Russian center, the last remaining restricted free agent for the Blues to re-sign, added three goals and three assists in the playoffs as part of the Blues' fourth line.

Hannover 96 and U.S. youth international striker Sebastian Soto is unlikely to move before the close of the transfer window on Sept. 2, with one source close to the player putting the chances at "five percent."

Hannover issued a statement last Thursday that Soto was in advanced talks with a club from outside Germany about a transfer. The source said Belgian Pro League side Club Brugge as well as Liga Portugal powerhouse Benfica are among the interested clubs.

- Carlisle: The story behind Soto's rise up the U.S. ranks
- Stream games LIVE on ESPN+

But the source added that Hannover's demands for a transfer fee in the seven-figure range have put off interested suitors, especially given the fact that Soto's contract expires at the end of the current campaign, allowing him to sign a pre-contract in as soon as four months. Hannover offered Soto a three-year deal earlier this summer, but the player prefers a two-year contract.

Soto, 19, is scheduled to travel to Chula Vista, Calif. on Monday in order to take part in a training camp for the U.S. U23 national team. That gives him scant time to pass a physical and actually sign a deal.

Soto has become increasingly frustrated over his lack of playing time this season, which consists of a solitary four-minute stint against Jahn Regensburg in the second game of the season. Hannover, now competing in the 2. Bundesliga after last season's relegation, has scored just six goals in five league and cup matches, but three of those came against bottom-of-the-league SV Wehen Wiesbaden. Hannover currently sits in 12th place through five matches, with its five points putting it level with five other clubs.

Soto scored four goals for the U.S. at the FIFA U20 World Cup last spring, a tournament in which the Americans reached the quarterfinals. He has since been in demand at international level, with Chile -- the birth country of his father -- expressing interest in having Soto file a one-time switch to represent La Roja.

Game of the weekend

In these days of infinite possibilities for interaction between football and the watching public, there should really be button everyone can press which forces a game of football to be extended indefinitely. You can only use it once a season, but if enough people press the button, then the teams must keep on playing for our amusement.

That game this weekend would have most certainly been the north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, a chaotic mess of a fixture that was nonetheless massively entertaining to watch, two sides with just the right balance of strengths and flaws to produce a spectacle like that. It was 2-2 but it could have been 5-5. More of this please.

Arsenal's problem of the weekend

For the neutral, the element of chaos that David Luiz and Granit Xhaka bring to Arsenal is extremely entertaining. For Arsenal themselves, it's more of a problem.

These are two players who between them have played in six different countries, winning five league titles, who have nearly 900 senior club appearances and 132 international caps. And yet they cost Arsenal goals with challenges that you'd reprimand a giddy teenager for, Luiz storming into a tackle that Son Heung-min merrily skipped past, Xhaka for some reason going to ground and ploughing through the same player to concede a penalty.

They will have to live with Luiz, because Arsenal frankly have nobody much better at centre-back. But in midfield, this should be the last we see of Xhaka in a game of much significance. He's simply a liability.

- Ogden: Arsenal's rally buys Emery more time
- Laurens: Meet Arsenal's transfer guru, Raul Sanllehi

Tottenham's problem of the weekend

You could argue either way whether this was a good result or not for Spurs, but more interesting was Mauricio Pochettino's post-match suggestion -- and not for the first time -- that not everyone had been "100% focused" on Tottenham before this week.

The implication was that now the European transfer window is closing, attitudes will change and minds will concentrate on the job in hand. But will that automatically happen? Will Christian Eriksen immediately banish all thoughts of Real Madrid and get on with being brilliant for his current team? Will whoever else Pochettino was archly referring to only care about the badge on their chests?

And that's if you even accept this has been their problem. There's a strong sense that Pochettino is simply using the distractions of the transfer window to mask issues that have been festering for a while: their vulnerabilities at full-back, Hugo Lloris' form (though he made some vital saves at the Emirates), an increasing sense of disorder in midfield. None of those will be solved by the transfer window closing, so it will be interesting to see how Pochettino handles this from here.

- Spurs ratings: Son, Lloris 8/10 in derby
- Arsenal ratings: Lacazette, Aubameyang earn 8/10 each

Scuppered plans of the weekend

Brighton defender Dan Burn said before their defeat to Manchester City on Saturday that they had been working on a plan all week to deal with the defending champions. City scored their first goal after 71 seconds, calling to mind Mike Tyson's famous maxim that "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

It's a decent encapsulation of how nightmarish City are to face: you can spend hours figuring out how to stop them, how to beat them, looking for weaknesses...and then they're too good anyway, score after a minute and all your work is wasted.

Teething problems of the weekend

In the end the bigger surprise from Chelsea's 2-2 draw with Sheffield United was not Frank Lampard's side giving up a two-goal lead, but that it took until the last few minutes for the equaliser to come.

Lampard is learning on the job and will grow from his mistakes, but at the moment he's doing a lot of learning and growing. Bringing on the 18-year-old Billy Gilmour for his senior debut in the last few minutes as United were gaining momentum, for example, didn't look like the shrewdest move: Lampard defended it by pointing out Mateo Kovacic, the man who came off, was tired, but entrusting a rookie rather than someone with 52 Croatia caps -- weary or not -- was a significant gamble.

Maybe we shouldn't be too harsh on Lampard: after all, it's not his fault that Gilmour was the only midfielder on his bench. It also isn't his fault that Cesar Azpilicueta, the formerly rock solid, super-reliable Cesar Azpilicueta, is having a rotten start to the season: both United goals came from his side, one when he was easily turned and nutmegged, the other when he lost track of Theo Robinson's run. This column made the point a few weeks ago, but Lampard has enough problems without having to worry about a player none of his predecessors had to worry about.

Management of the weekend

But maybe pointing out Chelsea's weaknesses is missing the point. "We're not at Chelsea today because it's the third round of the FA Cup," said Blades manager Chris Wilder after the game, "we're here because we're in the Premier League, and we're going toe-to-toe with them, and they're in the Premier League."

Much has been said and written about Sheffield United's innovative tactics and style of play this season, but surely the key to all of that is that their players have the confidence to actually pull those ambitious plans off. This is where Wilder's man management comes in, and him reiterating to his squad that grounds like Stamford Bridge is where they belong is part of that.

By all accounts Wilder's assistant Alan Knill is the tactical brains behind this United team, but it's thanks to Wilder that they put the theory into practice.

Possible delusion of the weekend

"The last three games, we know we deserved to win all three. That doesn't give us any comfort in the table. But it does give us comfort that we know we're doing the right things, we're on the right track."

It's possible that the relentlessly optimistic Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is just trying to keep his troops' spirits up, in his comments following their 1-1 draw with Southampton. But to take them at face value is to wonder if we all have indeed been watching the same games as him, rather than some much more favourable computer simulation in which Manchester United have been...well...good.

Spat of the weekend

Liverpool are now so good that Sadio Mane tantrum, upset at some unspecified person for some unspecified reason after being taken off against Burnley, can be spun as a positive for them (fighting spirit, competitiveness, etc., and so on) without it sounding too ridiculous. Fairly ridiculous, sure, but not excessively so.

They're top of the league, have a 100% record and are already seven points clear of Manchester United. Maybe Mane was just trying to make things a bit more interesting.

Luckiest moment of the weekend

All that said, would things have turned out the same for Liverpool at Burnley had Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross not looped wildly off Chris Wood and into the net to give them the lead? Perhaps, but to that point it had been a tough encounter, and that goal punctured Burnley's resolve.

Goal of the weekend

What is it about a perfectly-judged lob that is so satisfying? Is it the skill? Is it that they're relatively unusual? Is it that we can see earlier than most other goals that they're going to be goals, so we have time to savour them? Whatever it is, Jamie Vardy's first in Leicester's win over Bournemouth was an absolute peach, and we could watch it over and over again.

New VAR issue of the weekend

Another weekend, another round of decisions that VAR could have corrected but didn't. But the weekend has also revealed another side effect of the system, which is referees escaping the blame for poor decisions based on misunderstandings about how it is used.

Kevin Friend's absurd decision to deny Aston Villa a goal because Jack Grealish had 'dived' -- this despite him having been fouled twice in the space of half a second and not even claiming a foul -- was initially deemed a failure of VAR, complaints broadly directed towards the fact that the decision hadn't been reversed. But it apparently could not have been referred, a subsection of the implementation that hasn't been well communicated to the general public, meaning more confusion was created.

You could argue that these are merely teething problems which will be ironed out as the season continues, or you could simply think that a new issue will emerge either week, something we would not encounter had we all just been adults and accepted that referees get things wrong sometimes.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and cornerback Joe Haden have agreed to a 2-year, $22 million extension that includes a $16.8 million signing bonus, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Haden, 30, was entering the final year of a three-year, $27 million deal that he signed before the 2017 season.