Chelsea’s lead remains four points though, with second-placed Southampton beating Leicester 2-0, supersub Shane Long scoring two late goals at St Mary’s on 75 and 80.
Elsewhere, Sergio Aguero scored both Manchester City's goals as they twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at QPR.
Juan Mata came off the bench to score the only goal as Manchester United got back to winning ways with a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace.
Burnley finally achieved their first win of the season at the eleventh attempt, beating Hull 1-0 at Turf Moor.In the other 3pm kick-off, West Ham and Aston Villa finished 0-0.
The lunchtime kick-off at Anfield was not without controversy. Emre Can gave the hosts the lead in the ninth minute with a deflected shot but Gary Cahill bundled in the equaliser five minutes later, goal-line technology confirming the ball had crossed the line.
Costa drove home his tenth goal of the season in the 66th minute to hand the visitors the lead but there was late controversy when Liverpool had a late penalty appeal turned down after a shot from Steven Gerrard hit Cahill on the arm.
Down on the south coast, Saints kept their stunning start to the seasong going with a hard-fought victory. Long replaced Saido Mane in the 67th minute and curled home a fine opener eight minutes later, before beating the visitors' offside trap to stroke home his second with 10 minutes to go.
In west London, Charlie Austin gave QPR a first-half lead with a neat finish in front of watching England manager Roy Hodgson before Aguero levelled matters on 32 minutes.
A Martin Demichelis own goal looked like it had given Rangers a crucial win in their battle to escape the drop zone before Aguero netted a second equaliser with eight minutes remaining as City dropped further behind Chelsea.
City and Joe Hart had a lucky escape on eight minutes when Austin – who moments earlier had a goal ruled out for offside – profited from a weak free-kick by the England goalkeeper to fire in. Hart indicated to Dean he had accidentally taken two touches and the effort was disallowed.
Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal was frank in his Friday press conference – he admitted he had under-achieved so far, and needs three years to turn the club around.
The hosts endured another frustrating afternoon until Mata’s introduction and the Spaniard won it, playing a neat one-two with Angel di Maria before firing home.
Mata hit the post late on but United saw it out to leave Van Gaal feeling somewhat less “lousy” than he did on Friday.
Burnley’s hero at Turf Moor was Ashley Barnes, who headed home the winner in a game the Clarets had dominated.
At Upton Park, the big news was the return of Andy Carroll - and that Diafra Sakho did not score. Summer signing Sakho had scored six goals in his previous six starts but could find no way past an inspired Brad Guzan. Carroll came off the bench made his comeback from injury with a few minutes left and almost won the game, but his header was brilliantly saved by Guzan.
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