Another gutting last gasp goal saw us fall to a 2-1 defeat at home to Arsenal, in a game between ourselves and the Gunners once again marred by VAR controversy.

After Viktor Gyokeres was denied a penalty having been brought down by Nick Pope, Nick Woltemade grabbed his second goal of the season with a towering header over Gabriel.

But a feisty second half saw both Mikel Merino and Gabriel turn the game on its head and condemn us to our second defeat of the campaign. Tino Livramento’s knee injury was just the tip of the iceberg in what was a painful final 25 minutes.

Here’s what Eddie Howe had to say following Sunday afternoon’s game:

Howe on result and performance

It was again a tale of two halves on Tyneside, as we felt like a much more solid team in the first half than we did the second, as Arsenal began to apply more pressure as they chased for an equaliser.

Malick Thiaw, Sven Botman and Nick Woltemade were again excellent, and should be high up on the team sheet for the foreseeable future. But despite some individually great performances, Howe feels that as a team we left a lot to be desired with today’s display.

“Hard done by? I’m not sure. We are absolutely disappointed to lose in the way that we did. The timing of the goal, that’s a killer for us, very similar feelings to Liverpool. Different feelings in terms of performance though.”

“I don’t feel like we were quite at our best today, credit to Arsenal but I don’t think we were quite there. Although the effort and defensive resilience was huge for the team.”

“The majority of the game, I couldn’t fault the defenders and the goalkeeper, I thought we were really good.”

“I think the biggest complaint I have today was sort-of on the ball, I didn’t think we were particularly great. We lacked our usual fluency.”

On Nick Pope’s divisive display

For the first 75-80 minutes of Sunday’s game, Nick Pope was excellent, stopping certain goals from going in with fingertip saves.

But the last ten minutes plus stoppage time, the shot stopper’s flaws were exposed once again. A slow reaction to Merino’s equaliser, and poor distribution in the dying minutes eventually afforded Arsenal the decisive corner they needed for the winner.

Howe however has stood by his go-to goalkeeper, lauding some of the big saves he made that kept us in the game to begin with.

“I prefer to reflect on the positive. Nick made some unbelievable saves for us today, we’re indebted to how he’s kept goal.”

“You can always critique, in any goal you can critique the team’s function, you can critique individuals, it’s all about the collective.

“We’re just disappointed collectively that we didn’t defend better for the two goals.”

Howe on VAR controversy

If the last few years of fixtures between ourselves and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have delivered anything, it’s been VAR controversy and debatable calls.

From Gyokeres having his pen overturned, Gabriel committing both a punch to the face of Woltemade and an extended arm to block Elanga’s effort late in the second half, it’s amazing that there wasn’t much in the way of discipline handed out by the referee today.

On the Gabriel handball call, Howe seemed surprised by the on-field decision, but took a pretty forgiving stance regarding VAR’s final decision.

“My instant reaction was that it was a penalty because I thought the hand was up.

“But I trust the process, I trust VAR and they said no.”

“I was hopeful that it would be given and I saw the arm raised.”

On how the midfield decided the game

Sunday’s game was always going to come down to which midfield would out-perform the other. Our established trio of Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes, or Arsenal’s dependable selection of Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice with Eberechi Eze slotting in at CAM.

And unfortunately for us, having that creative focal point in Eze helped the Gunners a lot as we found ourselves repeatedly cut apart in midfield and on the counter, with Martin Odegaard’s late cameo also proving decisive.

“I thought Odegaard’s introduction changed it for them. I thought he made a difference for them and started to penetrate our lines more.”

“We know they’re a good set-play team. I felt we defended them well all day until the end.”