Callum Wilson’s penalty cancelled out Alexis Sanchez’s opener, before second half goals from Theo Walcott and another from Sanchez sealed the three points for the Gunners.
Despite the defeat, Howe felt that on a different day the scoreline could've gone the other way, but praised his players for giving everything despite being beaten.
He said: "I felt that we were well in the game right until the end.
"It’s very easy to come here and put 11 men behind the ball and try to hang on for a point, but we went toe-to-toe with them today and we gave everything to try and equal them and better them.
“" thought an equaliser could be on the cards especially with how we played and with the momentum in the game so to lose 3-1 is bitterly disappointing.
"We moved the ball very well and we created numerous options and I thought we looked very good at times.
"That final pass, that final bit of quality where we did cut them open potentially wasn’t there today. That’s the frustrating thing. And then when we did get the chances, we didn’t take them. When you come to the Emirates, any chance is a good one.
"In saying that, I thought the players were excellent today, they really did the club proud in terms of their work ethic and the quality of their performance was very very high. Individually, I thought there were some superb displays."
Howe also spoke of the depth within the squad and how far the players have come as a team in the past year.
He continued: "I feel that it was a more even game than the one last season. I thought we started very well in it but then their quality showed and we dealt with their threats better today.
"You look at the players we’re missing, Artur Boruc, Charlie Daniels and Andrew Surman – they’ve been key players here for a number of years and they know how we play inside out so to come here without them and produce the performance we did speaks volumes of the quality of the squad.
"I think that experiences like this where we play the top teams enable you to play the other sides in the division with more confidence."
