JUSTICE DONE

Yes, it upset Everton but their late ‘winner’ against United was offside. A case of . . .

GIVEN that we live in an age when players are called offside by the width of their armpit, there really was no cause for prolonged debate here.

We appreciated the drama. We always do.

Goodison Park was at its most febrile, disenchanted best by the time the final whistle prompted Carlo Ancelotti to march towards referee Chris Kavanagh like a debt collector who knew he had somewhere else he quickly needed to be.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Gylfi Sigurdsson was offside. Clear and simple. All day long.

Yes, the injury- time shot by Dominic Calvert-Lewin was going in from the moment it struck Manchester United defender Harry Maguire on the heel. It was the deflection that had keeper David de Gea moving the wrong way — nothing to do with Sigurdsson.

But that doesn’t really matter. Everton’s Icelandic midfielder was sitting on the six-yard line, having been denied by a superb De Gea save a second or so earlier, when Calvert-Lewin’s shot arrived.

He actually had to lift his legs to let the ball pass by in to the goal. Interfering with play? Yes, you could say that. As the old saying goes, if you are that close to goal but aren’t interfering with play, what exactly are you doing?

So although Everton maybe deserved a winning goal on the balance of second-half play, they didn’t deserve this one to stand.

The rules don’t help, of course. At least not the way they are interpreted. There is no consistency.

So a 1- 1 draw it was and a reasonably engaging game had suddenly become one that we won’t forget for a while.

As the contest reached three minutes of added time, it was the goalkeepers we were talking about. Both committed grave errors to concede goals in the first half.

De Gea was first to err in only the third minute, taking far too long to attempt a clearance and seeing Calvert-Lewin charge it down and deflect the ball in to the net.

It was an awful blunder from a keeper who has one in his locker these days.

A goal down early in a game that meant so much to United’s topfour hopes, they actually recovered well.

With new signing Bruno Fernandes impressive once again, United were marginally the better team after that dreadful start and Nemanja Matic had come close twice — a shot against the bar and one saved low — by the time Jordan Pickford gifted them a goal on the half hour. Pickford is a good goalkeeper but he is too emotional and prone to mistakes like this. His England manager Gareth Southgate was here and saw him dive over a well struck Fernandes drive to invite United back in to the game.

Pickford was to save brilliantly from United substitute Odion Ighalo a minute or so before all the late drama. Having pushed a 90th- minute Fernandes shot upwards, he was able to divert the follow-up away with his foot. That is the side of Pickford we like but still we wonder when, at the age of almost 26, he is going to purge the other part from his game.

A goal late on for United would have been unfair on Everton, who were the more progressive side in the second half. Despite their early goal, Ancelotti’s team had not shown enough urgency in the first period. They had made it too easy for United to find a way back.

But it was a different matter after half-time. With midfielder Andre Gomes fit again so quickly after dislocating his ankle here against Tottenham in the autumn,

Everton had a player to not only help break up United’s midfield play but also pass quickly and accurately. It helped with their rhythm.

Sigurdsson almost gave Everton the lead again in the 56th minute via a curling free-kick that struck De Gea’s right-hand post with the goalkeeper stranded. Richarlison, first to the rebound, could not convert on the volley from six yards.

There were other chances, too. Calvert-Lewin worried the United central defensive pairing of Maguire and Victor Lindelof all afternoon with his speed and directness. One dash down the left with about 20 minutes to go required De Gea to save with his feet at the near post.

A foray from Richarlison needed intervention from a defender as the Brazilian looked to find runners arriving from deep to his right.

There were a host of corners and Ancelotti will have been encouraged by his team’s ascendency in the latter stages. Everton have improved under him and with a little bit of luck this could have been the sixth Premier League win of his two months in charge.

As for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, he will wonder why his United team fell away. Apart from his late save from Ighalo, Pickford was not troubled much at all in the second half and despite another encouraging afternoon from the gifted Fernandes, United did not see enough of the ball in the right areas to really look like a top-four team.

United have still not won more than two consecutive league games all season and that should be a worry. Here, though, they were saved from defeat by nothing more than the correct interpretation of the rules.

Amid all the hoopla, we should remember that.