Jurgen Klopp said sorry to Liverpool fans as their Premier League title hopes were dealt a critical blow by bitter rivals Everton.

Klopp's last visit to Goodison Park ended with his first defeat there, as Everton ran out deserved 2-0 winners in Wednesday night's Merseyside derby.

Premier League title glory was all that was left for Liverpool following exits in the FA Cup and Europa League, but this now looks a distant possibility.

They trail leaders Arsenal by three points and have a much inferior goal difference, while third-placed Manchester City are a point behind but have two games in hand.

"I can only apologise for today to the people. It is very disappointing. We played the game Everton wanted and they scored two goals from set-pieces. We should have done better but we didn't," said Klopp, as he took responsibility for the crushing derby defeat.

"No good thoughts at all. Very disappointed and frustrated. It was not good enough.

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"It was not the most inspired performance of all time, I really feel for the people. We never lost here (it was Everton's first Goodison derby win in almost 14 years) and it feels really different. I really apologise for that.

"I can't say now that we are still fully in it; we need a crisis at Man City and Arsenal and need to win football games because if they start losing all their games and we do what we did tonight nothing changes.

"We are not safe in the Champions League as well so we should just play better football.

"It is not a problem of attitude or what the boys want. No one is doing that on purpose.

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