LIVERPOOL was left frustrated after a 2-2 draw at Everton in the Merseyside derby Saturday, with VAR ruling out a potential winner from Jordan Henderson in stoppage time and key defender Virgil van Dijk suffering a knee injury.

Elsewhere, Chelsea conceded late to draw 3-3 at home to Southampton while Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola got the better of former assistant Mikel Arteta in a 1-0 win over Arsenal. Bruno Fernandes atoned for a missed penalty as Manchester United blitzed Newcastle 4-1 with late goals Saturday.

Everton, which has not beaten Liverpool since 2010, remains three points clear of its Merseyside rival at the top of the table after a number of controversial calls went its way at Goodison Park.

Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp was mystified that Henderson’s potential winner in added time against 10-man Everton was ruled out for a barely perceptible offside decision against Sadio Mane.

He was also at a loss to explain how Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford had not been dismissed and had not conceded an early penalty for a knee-high challenge on van Dijk.

Klopp said: “We lost one player in a situation where VAR was not involved with Virgil and maybe another one [Thiago Alcantara] in the red card situation and scored a legitimate goal, which didn’t count — so obviously not our day but the performance was the performance I wanted to see.”

Everton players showed their new-found mettle by twice coming from behind, with Michael Keane and the prolific Dominic Calvert-Lewin cancelling out goals from Mane and Mohamed Salah.

But the pivotal moment in the match came when van Dijk was on the receiving end of a dangerous late lunge from Pickford early in the game, which forced the Dutchman off.

However, no penalty was awarded after a VAR review because van Dijk had been marginally offside and Pickford was lucky to avoid a red card.

Richarlison was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on Thiago in the 90th minute before the VAR drama in the final seconds.

Van Dijk and Thiago both went to hospital for scans on their knee injuries after the game.

“Virgil played I don’t know how many games in a row, he plays with pain, but he couldn’t play on,” said  Klopp.

“That’s not good.”

At St. James’s Park, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men went into their match desperate to restore pride after a 6-1 hammering by Spurs before the international break but were immediately in trouble when Luke Shaw turned the ball into his own net.

United was back on level terms midway through the first half when captain Harry Maguire met Juan Mata’s corner with an unstoppable header, just days after the misery of a red card for England against Denmark.

The visitors were handed a golden chance to take the lead from the spot after VAR awarded them a penalty for Jamal Lewis’s challenge on Marcus Rashford but Karl Darlow dived to his right to save Fernandes’s 58th-minute spot-kick.(SD-Agencies)