Alexander Isak canceled out Chelsea's opener scored by Nicolas Jackson, but Cole Palmer struck a winner for the Blues.
Howe later insisted, "I thought it was a really good game, two really good teams. We gave a lot to the match, contributed a lot in terms of endeavour and attitude.
"I'm probably disappointed with the two goals we conceded, especially the second which we thought was self-inflicted. But we gave everything to try and get something.
"I felt we did for the character shown in coming back, I thought there were a lot of positive things, a lot of very good football. I felt as we were chasing the game we were moments away from scoring at any moment."
On what's missing at the moment, he continued: "I think it's just the final bit in both boxes where we didn't defend the two moments well enough and I felt we had enough positive actions to score more. Hopefully the goal will go a long way to ridding ourselves of that. No one can change it but us and we'll continue to attack games and attack teams.
"I think you go through all types of cycles as a manager. You understand the difficult moments and you just have to ride through them knowing you'll come back again. The attitude of the players gives me the most heart and that's the most important thing."
On how many changes he can make for Wednesday's League Cup game against Chelsea, Howe added: "We're probably not in the position where we can make as many as we would like. We'll try and make the right decisions for both games and we want to try and go as far as we can."