Worcester Warriors lock Michael Fatialofa remains in a serious condition in intensive care almost a week after suffering a neck injury.

The 27-year-old is being treated at St Mary's Hospital in London, having been stretchered off during the 62-5 defeat at Saracens last Saturday.

He had surgery on Monday evening to relieve pressure on his spinal cord.

Warriors have set up an email address so well-wishers can post messages of support for the forward.

The email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Worcester say Fatialofa and his wife Tatiana have been "overwhelmed" by messages of concern from around the world.

The New Zealander is in his second season at Sixways following his arrival from Super Rugby side Hurricanes in the summer of 2018.

Pekka Rinne became just the 12th goalie to score a goal in NHL history Thursday night, scoring an empty-netter with 22 seconds remaining to cap the Nashville Predators' 5-2 victory over the host Blackhawks in Chicago.

"I obviously understand that it might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing," a smiling Rinne said, "so I really enjoyed it. It was an awesome feeling seeing that puck go in."

Nashville had a 4-2 lead when Rinne fired the puck into the air from behind his own net. It landed inside Chicago's blue line and slid into the goal before Blackhawks forward Kirby Dach could chase it down.

Rinne, 37, said he realized it went in when he saw teammate Nick Bonino celebrating.

"It was pretty cool," said Rinne, who had 29 saves and recorded his 14th career point with the goal. "I just threw my hands up in the air and tried to act as cool as I can."

Rinne is the first goalie to score a goal since Mike Smith did it for Phoenix against Detroit on Oct. 19, 2013. Rinne joins Chris Mason as goaltenders to score for the Predators.

Thursday marked the 15th time, including the playoffs, that a goaltender has had a goal. Martin Brodeur did it three times, and Ron Hextall scored on two occasions.

Rinne's goal also had a sports betting impact; the over/under for the game was 6.5 at Caesars Sportsbook.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

DALLAS -- There are 31 head-coaching jobs in the National Hockey League. Rick Bowness has one of them -- but he truly wishes he didn't.

"I've been coaching in this league since the early 1980s. I didn't want to be put in this position," Bowness, 64, said. "No one saw it coming. It was a complete shock."

On Dec. 10, 2019, Bowness was named interim head coach of the Dallas Stars after the team fired Jim Montgomery for what general manager Jim Nill called "a material act of unprofessionalism." The nature of that unprofessionalism remained a mystery until Montgomery revealed in a statement that he was seeking treatment for an addiction to alcohol, calling the Stars' decision to fire him "a wake-up call [and] also the appropriate call."

The Fort-Worth Star Telegram reported this week that Montgomery was warned during his first season with the team about his excessive public intoxication, including at a local bar operated by the Stars' owner. Just 32 games into his second season as an NHL coach, Montgomery was dismissed primarily because of it.

"For every great thing that happens on the ice for this organization, there's an equal thing that seems to come across our path off the ice," said Daryl Reaugh, the Stars' long-time color commentator. "It was a weird firing overall. There's not really a precedent for it: The team's going well, you show up one morning, and for some reason, your coach is no longer your coach."

Montgomery wasn't the first coach fired this season for off-ice reasons -- see Flames, Calgary -- but he was the most successful one. His dismissal came with the Stars having made the second round of the playoffs in his first season behind an NHL bench and with them sitting in a Western Conference playoff spot this season, at 18-11-3.

Bowness, the remaining coaches and the players were then tasked with not allowing the season to descend into chaos. It wasn't going to be easy.

"You know what? It was touch-and-go there for a bit, to be honest," forward Andrew Cogliano said.

Yet the Stars have powered through, going 7-3-1 under Bowness for a 25-14-4 record and tied for second place in the Central Division.

"When I came to Dallas last year, I came to win a Stanley Cup with Jimmy Nill and Jimmy Montgomery," said Bowness, an assistant under Montgomery in both of his seasons. "I didn't come here to be an interim head coach. That wasn't part of the plan at all. But it falls onto you. And you make the most of it."

Adversity had already visited the Dallas Stars before Montgomery's firing made it a distant memory. They entered the season with high expectations, thanks to last season's success and the addition of players such as San Jose Sharks star Joe Pavelski in the offseason. The Stars began the season in terrible fashion, going 1-7-1 in their first nine games.

They kept the faith.

"It's a tough start, but we weren't playing bad hockey," goalie Ben Bishop said.

"We started off so bad that it was a surprise to everyone," Cogliano said. "It was tough to get through that, but we did -- and with flying colors."

Dallas course-corrected in a major way, winning 14 of 16 games, including a streak of seven that ended on Nov. 25. A little more than two weeks later, their coach was ousted.

"The players were just as shocked as we were, clearly," Bowness said. "It wasn't easy on them. Monty was really popular and a great coach. We've all adjusted as well as one could have hoped."

"With the coaching change, that was another bump in the road," Cogliano said. "I think that's the benefit of having some older players. We have some guys that have been around for a while. Does that help in those situations? Maybe a little bit. We know how to play as a team and can help other guys along a little bit."

Dallas has 13 players over the age of 28, including a former captain of the Sharks (Pavelski, 35) and the current captain of the Stars (Jamie Benn, 30). They've seen a lot adversity during their time in the league -- although, admittedly, not much that compares to the abrupt firing of their coach for off-ice reasons. But even an unexpected event such as that can be processed by a veteran player in a way that allows the team to move on from it.

"Unfortunately, the firing of Monty happens. But in sports, that's the type of stuff that happens. We responded well. It happened the day of a game, and we went out and won 3-0 in one of our better games of the season," said Bishop, who is once again one of the league's top netminders, with a .926 save percentage and a 14-9-3 record.

"It happens in sports. You lose players. Guys get traded. Obviously, it's your coach, and that doesn't happen all the time. But even though he's your coach, everyone has a job to do. The players are the ones that go out there and executive the game plan."

It also helps when Bowness is the one facilitating that game plan.

He began coaching in the NHL before every player on the Stars was born, save for Pavelski. His first gig was as an assistant coach with the Winnipeg Jets -- the eventual Coyotes, not the previous Thrashers -- in 1984, and then he became the interim coach in 1989. His next head-coaching job was with the Boston Bruins for one season in 1992-93. Then he coached the expansion Ottawa Senators from 1992 to '96. He moved to the New York Islanders in 1996 and became their head coach for parts of two seasons. His final head-coaching gig came as an interim coach with the Phoenix Coyotes in 2003-04. In the past 20 years, he also served as an assistant coach for Phoenix, Vancouver, Tampa Bay and Dallas.

"He's coached more games than anybody else in the NHL," Bishop said. "It's nice to have that guy behind the bench."

When Montgomery was fired, Nill and his staff sat down to explore their options. Bowness wasn't the only coach with experience on the bench: John Stevens, former head coach of the Flyers and Kings, is an assistant. So is Todd Nelson, who had a brief stint as an interim coach with the Edmonton Oilers. Derek Laxdal, promoted to assistant coach when Montgomery was ousted, was the Stars' AHL head coach. But Bowness was handed the keys and told that this would be the Stars' staff for the rest of the season.

"We're fortunate. [The assistants] are all very good," Nill said. "Rick's been around a long time and did a great job. I think he managed the staff very well. I just think he was the right choice for the organization and where we're at right now."

The amount of heavy lifting Bowness had been doing behind the scenes in support of Montgomery wasn't common knowledge outside the dressing room, according to Reaugh.

"You have a guy like Bones ... I don't want to take anything away from Monty, but he was doing a lot of coaching," Reaugh said. "Even in his rookie year as head coach, Rick Bowness was doing a ton of coaching. So even though it's a different voice with the bullhorn, a lot of the things are absolutely the same. Bones is so old-school. He's seen so much and done so much that I think he's going to have the trust of the room."

There is a consistency that Bowness brings to the Stars' system that has made the transition easier. But there is a difference in tone: Spend a few moments with Bowness, and one easily senses the infectious spirit that has endeared him to players at every coaching stop. Take, for instance, his introductory media conference, in which Bowness said that when coaches are fired, it's usually because teams are struggling or trying to sell off their assets to tank.

"Which I've been a part of," he said, with a laugh, "too many times."

Bishop appreciates the contrast in disposition. "Bones is a little bit more of an upbeat guy. That's his personality," he said. "He's always got a smile on his face. He's always the guy to say 'good morning' the loudest when he walks into a room."

When the sun set on Montgomery, it was anyone's guess how Dallas would react. But it appears that the Stars promoted the right coach to take over, in support of the players, who have made the transition as seamless as possible.

"After a while ... I don't want to say you forget about it, but you kind of have to, you know?" Cogliano said. "That's the nature of it. You can't dwell on it. You have to move on. It was a weird situation, to be honest, and it was unfortunate when it happened, but also we have Bones, and we have the full confidence in him."

The organization is confident that it can actually become better from this adversity.

"I think today's player is pretty good at shrugging their shoulders and going, 'Well, that happened,'" Reaugh said. "I think if you did something like this 15 years ago, it would have been chaotic. Now, for the most part, they're able to go about their own business. In some weird way, it may actually turn out to be a positive because the internal community galvanizes."

With one eye on the crisis in his homeland, Marc Leishman has worked his way onto the early leaderboard at the Sony Open.

Leishman battled swirling winds during the opening round at Waialae Country Club, posting a 2-under 68 that ordinarily would have left him in the middle of the pack on the vintage layout. But given the conditions, it put him near the top and three shots behind early leader Collin Morikawa.

"That was pretty brutal," Leishman told reporters. "It was as good as I've played for a while, and really, really happy with 2 under."

Leishman is no stranger to success in Honolulu, with four top-20 finishes since 2013. That includes a T-3 result last year, when he closed with a 6-under 64. He managed four birdies on the day, including three in a five-hole stretch from Nos. 14-18.

Those circles on the scorecard are especially important for Leishman given the wildfires that continue to burn in his native Australia. Leishman is one of several players pledging charitable donations based on birdies and eagles this week, with the PGA Tour matching donations up to $125,000.

"Any fire is bad no matter the size, but this is a, it's like on a huge, huge scale. So the whole country is in dire straits, really," Leishman said. "We don't know when they're going to stop and there is a lot of people suffering. So if we can donate some money, help them out ... They need to rebuild houses. So yeah, just hoping I can play good and donate a lot."

Pete Dye, one of the game's most renowned, legendary course architects, died Thursday at the age of 94. Dye is responsible for many of golf's iconic venues like the TPC Sawgrass' Stadium Course, Whistling Straits, Kiawah Island's Ocean Course, and much more. Here's what social media had to say on his death:

With the Sony Open blown upside down, it was one of the youngest players in the field who set the early pace.

A trip to Waialae Country Club is usually an easy way to start the year. Birdies are aplenty on the old-school, Seth Raynor layout, where distance is hardly a requirement for success. The winning score has been at least 17 under each of the last seven years, with Justin Thomas breaking all kinds of records with his 27-under total in 2017.

But those records likely won't be touched this week, with Honolulu buffeted Thursday by 20-30 MPH winds that aren't expected to lighten up much over the weekend. The conditions turned a typically tame test into anything but during the opening round.

"We've all probably experienced wind like this at some point, but it's rare," 2009 winner Zach Johnson told reporters after a 1-under 69. "I've not experienced it here."

But sometimes ignorance is bliss. Making his tournament debut at age 22, Collin Morikawa had never seen Waialae in its usually benign state. With nothing to compare it to, he tackled the blustery conditions without hesitation, carving one accurate iron after the next en route to a 5-under 65.

It was the only bogey-free round of the morning wave, and it moved the former Cal standout to the top of the leaderboard.

"I think the harder conditions are better for me," Morikawa told reporters. "Ball-strikers just want to control everything, control the ball, and I had complete control today. That's what you want to do."

Very little has been outside of Morikawa's control in his first months as a pro. Since making his debut in June, he has compiled six top-10 finishes including a breakthrough win at the Barracuda Championship, all while making the cut in each of his 15 worldwide starts.

That streak doesn't appear to be in jeopardy this week in Hawaii, where Morikawa birdied four of his final 10 holes. With gusty winds making it difficult to hole lengthy putts, he worked around it by stuffing one approach shot after the next and setting the early pace despite not holing a putt over 10 feet.

"The driver wasn't great, but didn't put me in places that were awful," Morikawa said. "I still had shots where I was. The rough is up, so you've just got to get lucky some places where you put it."

Morikawa's win in Reno didn't earn him a Masters invite, but he's got still got a chance to rectify that. Of course, a victory in Honolulu will send him down Magnolia Lane, but Morikawa is also rocketing up the world rankings with each passing week. A T-7 finish at Kapalua moved him up to No. 55 in the world, and another strong finish this week could get him into the top 50 for the first time - a position that, should he retain it in April, would mean a spot in the year's first major.

But for now, he's focused on taming a suddenly difficult layout in the first full-field event of 2020.

"It's tough out here," Morikawa said. "Playing last week got me prepared for today in the wind, and look forward to the next few days."

Collin Morikawa set the pace during a blustery opening round Thursday at Waialae Country Club, taking a two-shot lead at the Sony Open. Here's what you need to know:

1. Collin Morikawa (-5)

T-2. Ted Potter Jr. (-3)

T-2. Matt Jones (-3)

T-2. Ryan Palmer (-3)

T-2. Sam Ryder (-3)

Click here for full leaderboard.

Morikawa seems to be enjoying his fortnight in Hawaii. After tying for seventh in his debut last week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Morikawa fired the only bogey-free round of the day at Waialae, a 5-under 65, which marks the best round of his young PGA Tour career and ties his best Tour round in relation to par.

For as much as Morikawa has been compared to peers Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland since turning pro last summer, the Cal product is well ahead of both in the world rankings (Hovland is No. 92, Wolff No. 98) and top-10s (Morikawa has six while Hovland has three and Wolff has one, albeit a win at the 3M Open).

But despite winning the Barracuda Championship last season, Morikawa, unlike Wolff, is not yet in the Masters field. However, at No. 55 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Morikawa is on the cusp of earning his invite to Augusta National. The top 50 as of March 30 qualify. He is already qualified for the PGA Championship but he could also secure U.S. Open and Open Championship berths via his world ranking. Two top-60 cutoffs remain for Winged Foot while top 50 earns a ticket to Royal St. George's.

A victory – or even another top-10 – could go a long way in getting Morikawa a spot in every major this year.

On a windy day in Honolulu, Morikawa hit half his fairways and missed five greens. He also led the field in strokes gained: tee-to-green – that's how tough the conditions were Thursday. Morikawa also topped the field in proximity to the hole (23 feet, 6 inches), which explains why he also didn't make a single putt of 10 feet or longer.

Morikawa birdied Nos. 11 and 18 before adding three on his second nine, at Nos. 4, 5 and 9. Three of those birdie putts came from 7 feet and in.

The wind tried to help Brian Harman at the 183-yard, par-3 17th hole. Instead, Harman, who fired 68, settled for a tap-in birdie.

While the 22-year-old Morikawa tops the leaderboard, the chasing pack, for the most part, is anything but youthful.

Aside from 30-year-old Sam Ryder, the three other players tied for second have a combined age of 108 – Ryan Palmer (43), Matt Jones (39) and Ted Potter Jr. (36). Palmer has three straight top-20s entering this week while Jones is coming off his victory at the Australian Open. Potter, though, has missed five straight cuts and has just one top-10 finish since his victory at the 2018 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

The group three shots back includes Rory Sabbatini (43), Pat Perez (43), Tim Wilkinson (41) and Brendan Steele (36).

A week after winning in a playoff at Kapalua, Justin Thomas bogeyed three of his first five holes and ended up with an opening 2-over 72. Shockingly, Thomas led the field in strokes gained: off-the-tee. He also lost more than two strokes on the field on and around the greens.

Fourteen players did not finish their first round before play was suspended due to darkness at 6:10 p.m. local time. Those players will resume play at 7:45 a.m. Friday morning to finish their opening round. 

The United States and Mexico face a tough road to Tokyo as both sides, along with Costa Rica, were drawn into the same group in the 2020 CONCACAF men's Olympic qualifying tournament.

The three sides -- traditionally the strongest in the North American and Caribbean region -- will be joined by the Dominican Republic in Group A.

Group B will consist of Honduras, Canada, El Salvador and Haiti. The top two from each group move on to the knockout round, with the champion and runner-up booking tickets to Tokyo.

Mexico, which won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London, will host the qualifying tournament in Guadalajara between March 20 and April 1.

The U.S. is hoping to qualify for the first time since 2008 after having missed out on the past two editions.

Olympic sides consist of countries' under-23 teams, but they can call up to three overage players should they reach Tokyo, where the tournament runs July 22-Aug. 8.

The squads for Guadalajara will mainly rely on MLS and Liga MX players, as it would be unlikely that European-based stars such as Chelsea's Christian Pulisic or Ajax's Edson Alvarez would leave in the midst of their club campaigns.

Everything you need to know about this weekend's Premier League action, all in one place.

Jump to: Will Kane's injury hurt Liverpool | Saints to suffer PTSD | Moyes to pass first test | Man to watch | Game not to miss | Stats of the weekend | Team that needs some luck| One thing that will definitely happen | Predictions

The weekend's big questions

Will Harry Kane's absence actually make things harder for Liverpool?

The short, lacking in nuance answer to that question is: "No, obviously not, you fool."

The slightly longer, more nuanced answer is: maybe. Tottenham have actually coped pretty well without Kane in the past, his annual one-to-three-month injury usually negotiated as well as can be expected for a team that hasn't had another centre-forward worth speaking of for a decade. But in this specific instance, with Jose Mourinho leading a team against a thrilling Liverpool side chasing the league title, it could mean Mourinho goes ... well, even more Mourinho.

The Spurs manager loves the role of the spoiler, his mentality in these games rather akin to a child who smashes their sibling's toy: the "if I can't have it, nobody can have it" theory. With Kane available, in a home game with his side needing a result, Mourinho might still have felt obliged to attack and compete like a normal football team. But without Kane, he might think Spurs can't win by conventional methods, and there's a stronger-than-average chance that he will bunker down and get his team to simply do everything they can to frustrate Liverpool and earn a draw, by any means necessary. It could be a long evening for Jurgen Klopp's champions-elect.

Will Southampton suffer from footballing PTSD?

At the time, it felt like the end of the world for Southampton, but ultimately it seems the only medium/long-term casualty of their 9-0 defeat to Leicester back in October was goalkeeper Angus Gunn, who hasn't played a minute of league football since. Which makes some sense. Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl survived despite suggestions, after such a calamitous defeat, that his position was untenable, and the Saints hierarchy have been rewarded for sticking with the Austrian.

The two sides meet again for the first time since that Friday night rout, and this is where the illogical psychology of football comes in. Southampton have slowly recovered since that evening, winning five of their last eight to clamber back up to 12th place and in terms of points, are the same distance from Spurs in sixth as they are to Bournemouth in 18th. But the Saints players would not be human if the sight of those blue shirts and Brendan Rodgers and Jamie Vardy didn't give them flashbacks, a sort of mild form of footballing PTSD, which could easily affect how they play on Saturday. It will be fascinating to see if it does.

Will David Moyes pass a real test back at West Ham?

If you're feeling uncharitable towards David Moyes, you could write his opening two wins back at West Ham off as gimmes, a thrashing of beleaguered Bournemouth followed by a solid victory against League One Gillingham in the FA Cup. But if the Hammers get a result in their next encounter, it will be a little more difficult to quibble with his impact. Travelling to Sheffield United is a tough task as Chris Wilder's side are one of the more punishing opponents in the Premier League, so this is a real test for Moyes. If his side pass it then there may be real cause for optimism in East London.

Man to watch

Granit Xhaka

Perhaps it was a move to help win over the dressing room, where Granit Xhaka is reportedly very popular, but it was a big call for one of Mikel Arteta's first acts as Arsenal manager to persuade Xhaka that he should turn down Hertha Berlin and stay at the Emirates. Xhaka's rift with the Arsenal crowd seems to be behind both parties now, but a more pressing issue is whether the Swiss midfielder's performances will actually be worth the effort.

Xhaka was calamitously bad in the first half of their FA Cup win over Leeds (with the caveat that no Arsenal player was good), and was extremely lucky not to donate a couple of goals to the Championship side. Xhaka owes Arteta a performance to justify his manager's faith, starting against Crystal Palace on Saturday. And if you believe in narratives like this, Palace were the opponents during his minor meltdown against the Emirates crowd.

The game you aren't planning to watch, but should

Bournemouth vs. Watford

This is arguably the biggest game of the weekend, a clash between one side on the up and another very much not. Watford's form has been recovering at around the same time as Bournemouth's has completely collapsed. Just a point separates the two teams now, compared to the eight when Nigel Pearson was appointed at Watford just a month and six games ago. So a classic relegation "six-pointer" then; one team looking to further their recovery and another trying to start one. For Bournemouth's part, their hope is that the goals scored by Callum Wilson and Dominic Solanke in the FA Cup will spark some sort of form for them, because boy do they need it.

Stats of the weekend

- Tottenham-Liverpool highlights the Premier League slate on Saturday. Liverpool have gone over a year (Jan. 3, 2018) since their last Premier League loss and are on a 37-game league unbeaten streak. The Reds are also unbeaten in their past eight PL matches in London, and seek to win four straight in London for the first time since October 1989.

- Crystal Palace host Arsenal, which sees the oldest head coach in the Premier League (Roy Hodgson, 72) facing the youngest head coach in the Premier League (Mikel Arteta, 37) -- an age difference of almost 35 years (34 years and 229 days). Hodgson was six years into his managerial career when Arteta was born.

- Leicester City defeated Southampton 9-0 earlier this season in what tied the record for largest win in Premier League history and broke the record for largest away win. The most goals a team has scored against an opponent in a single PL season is 12; Leicester need three goals to equal the totals 1995-96 Blackburn scored against Nottingham Forest and Tottenham scored against Wigan in 2009-10

The team that needs a bit of luck

Aston Villa

Aside from Bournemouth, Aston Villa must be the unluckiest team in the Premier League as far as injuries are concerned this season. They have lost their first-choice goalkeeper and only centre-forward to speak of, and it's only down to the excellence of manager Dean Smith and various players, most prominently Jack Grealish, that they managed to win their last league game against Burnley and get a creditable draw against Leicester in their Carabao Cup semifinal.

By the time Sunday's game against Manchester City comes around they may have recruited replacements in those two key positions, but if they don't then they will need all the luck in the world to get out of this in one piece.

One thing that will definitely happen

Everton will be frustrating, whatever the result against Brighton

The irritation for Everton fans in losing last weekend's Merseyside derby was not the defeat -- they're used to that. It probably wasn't even that the defeat came against Liverpool's B team -- they have so much talent at Anfield, that sort of thing can happen. The irritation was more the absolutely spineless performance, surrendering to their local rivals with barely a whimper.

So whatever happens against Brighton, they will probably frustrate their supporters: if they don't win, it's another set of points down the toilet and they'll be looking over their shoulders at the relegation spots. But if they do win by showing some gumption (and they'll have to against Brighton) then we should rightly wonder where that moxy was last weekend.

Predictions

Sheffield United 2-0 West Ham United

Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal

Everton 3-1 Brighton

Leicester 3-1 Southampton

Manchester United 1-1 Norwich City

Chelsea 2-0 Burnley

Wolves 3-0 Newcastle

Tottenham 1-3 Liverpool

Bournemouth 1-2 Watford

Aston Villa 0-3 Manchester City

Liverpool supporters have had a hard time of it on social media the past few months, with rival fans insisting they are only running away with the Premier League title due to VAR decisions made in their favour and against their opponents.

The evidence wasn't really there in our November VAR table, with no net affect on Liverpool's points tally (though their lead was cut by a couple of points).

But now ... look away, Liverpool fans.

ESPN and the team led by Dr. Thomas Curran at the London School of Economics have compiled the Anti-VAR Index, which shows how the league would look if VAR decisions were removed from games.

However, we're not just removing goals here to get the amended results. That is far too simplistic. We've developed an algorithm that takes into account many factors, such as the state of the game at that point, form, performance and relative strength, then we've got a whole new set of results based on probability of outcome.

The latest results show that Liverpool's advantage over Manchester City is slashed in HALF from 14 points to seven points, reigniting a title race which looks to be all but over in reality. Their lead at the top of the table over Leicester is 13 points right now, but Man City climb above the Foxes in the Anti-VAR table.

Our Index says Liverpool would have drawn away to Crystal Palace, dropping two points, if the Eagles hadn't seen a James Tomkins goal disallowed for a push by Jordan Ayew with the score at 0-0.

But it's not just about what has worked for Liverpool. Manchester City have been robbed of FIVE points by VAR decisions, a tally only rock-bottom Norwich City can better with six.

City see their home derby loss to United turned into a victory, as Marcus Rashford's penalty with the score at 0-0 is scrubbed out, and their early season draw at home to Tottenham would become a victory.

The affect of VAR on Norwich is so acute that the additional six points sees them go from being cut adrift at the bottom of the table to up to 18th, only stuck in the relegation zone on goal difference from Southampton.

Wolves get four points back, sending them up two places into fifth and within two points of unchanged Chelsea in the final Champions League place.

Arsenal -- who have been the unluckiest team in the Premier League this season -- improve three points and three places without VAR into seventh, just behind Sheffield United who gain three points too. Everton also improve by three points.

And that means there is a slip for Manchester United, who have been one of the beneficiaries of VAR -- most notably against City and Liverpool -- and slip four places to ninth after losing two points. Tottenham fall two places to eighth -- a home loss to Newcastle becomes a draw but it's judged they should have lost at home to Watford in a game that finished 1-1.

We're not sure what they have in the water down on the south coast, but it's been one big VAR party this season.

The biggest winners have been Southampton, who sit five points and five places worse off without VAR. Their relegation fears are back, a situation which is mirrored in the Luck Index, so their season could be a whole lot worse!

Brighton come next, four points better off with VAR, which when deducted leaves them level on points with Southampton and Brighton. Then it's Bournemouth, who have gained three points. Take those points off Eddie Howe's team, coupled with Norwich's VAR rebate, and they slump to the foot of the Premier League.

Only Leicester City can rival the south-coast trio in points gained from VAR, as they lose three to drop below Man City into third.

Latest VAR stats

Total overturns: 63
Leading to goals: 17
Disallowed goals: 34
Penalties awarded: 10 (4 missed)
Penalties retakes: 4
Goals ruled out for offside: 24
Goals awarded after incorrect offside: 7
Goals ruled out for handball: 5
Goals allowed after wrong handball: 1
Red cards: 3
Overturned red cards: 2
Most net decisions: Brighton 5
Most net against: Sheffield United 6
Most involvement: West Ham 10
Most decisions for: Brighton 7
Against: Sheffield United 7

Only club yet to experience an overturn against: Newcastle

Fewest overturns in favour: Aston Villa, Newcastle, Norwich, Sheffield United, Wolves (1)