Howe later said: "It was a strange game, frustrating conceding from their first attack. I thought we were really good in spells, but not good enough overall. I thought the goals we conceded were really poor.
"We were competitive, but the final ball was not good enough. Their first goal was out of nothing, all three goals (conceded) have the similar characteristics and we didn't defend these situations well enough and you are going to lose if you do that.
"It's a similar feeling over the last few months on the road. We know with the quality of players to defend better than that. It was not a bad performance, just inconsistent at times. There's promise that we can hit the heights, but we're not doing it enough."
He also stated: Wherever you play you have to pride yourself being tight and I don't think Chelsea had an abundance of chances tonight. But the way the goals came from our perspective is hugely frustrating as we know the details have to get better.
"There was a lot of good in our performance I thought we attacked well with good fluency in our play and getting into dangerous areas - the intention was there. I thought we were in total control of the game, but certainly stuff for us to look at."