Manchester United were the luckiest team in the English Premier League last year while Liverpool were the ‘unluckiest’ team.

That’s according to new research conducted by ESPN, Intel and the University of Bath.

Liverpool lost 12 points in matches affected by wrongly disallowed goals or incorrect decisions on penalties and red cards, according to the research while united gained six points over incidents that went in their favour.

However, the study found Huddersfield should have been relegated instead of stoke when ‘incorrect’ refereeing decisions were taken into account.

It also found Brighton would have finished six places higher – moving up to ninth on their return to the top flight while Leicester would have finished 14th instead of ninth, ending the season with £9.7m less in prize money.

Fourth-placed Liverpool would have swapped with second-placed united, and Champions Manchester City fallen three points short of their 100 mark.

The research team collaborated with ex-premier league referee peter Walton, analysing footage from every game of the 2017-18 premier league season.

Once incidents had been identified, an alternative outcome of the affected matches was predicted, using a model that also considered factors including team strength, form, and home advantage.