Eddie Howe reveals the Arsenal moment that was a 'huge disappointment' during Newcastle United's 4-1 defeat

Eddie Howe is still searching for answers to Newcastle United's defensive issues following Saturday's 4-1 defeat at Arsenal.

The Magpies have gone from having one of the best defensive records in the Premier League at the start of December to only the bottom three sides plus Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest conceding more.

Sven Botman's own goal was followed by strikes from Kai Havertz, Jakub Kiwior and Bukayo Saka before Joe Willock pulled back a late consolation on his return from injury.

"With every game that goes by that we concede goals, it's a concern and obviously we're working on lots of things behind the scenes to try and improve that but that probably wasn't evident with today's performance," Howe said afterwards.

After being 2-0 down at half-time, Newcastle started the second half on the front foot before Arsenal made it 3-0 as Kiwior headed in from a corner.

"We conceded two goals from corners and third goal is a huge disappointment because we were right in the game if we got the next goal so it's a difficult moment," Howe added.

"They played well, we played poorly. We're very honest with ourselves, the first 45 minutes was not good enough.

"We were second best and didn't react well under pressure. Sometimes you go away and you're under pressure but we had to be stronger, withstand the pressure and it led to a disappointing 45 minutes.

"We can't take too many positives from today. From 45 to when they scored their third goal, we were good and the better team but the goal kills the game.

"If we scored the next goal we're back in the game and anything can happen.

"But we didn't we and conceding the third summed up our recent weeks - we haven't been good enough defensively."

It was Newcastle's first defeat in six weeks, ending a five match unbeaten run in all competitions. Next up for Howe's side is a trip to Ewood Park to face Championship side Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup fifth round on Tuesday night (7:45pm kick-off).