Eddie Howe shares key reason Newcastle dropped points against Everton

Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe admits their lack of a fit striker has hurt them after a third Premier League match without a victory.

The goalless draw at Everton was not entirely down to former Toffees forward Anthony Gordon's failure with a 35th-minute penalty, which was saved by Jordan Pickford, as they lacked a cutting edge in the final third.

They managed just three shots on target only one more than their hosts who had less than a third of the possession and four times fewer touches in the penalty area in the whole game as ongoing injuries to Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson left them without a recognised number nine.

"You are always going to miss your strikers if they are not fit. If you take any focal-point number nine out of team you are going to miss them," said Howe.

"The two we have been missing are top players. They are both different but I think you could see elements of our game missing that spark was missing and in part that is down to them."

"Anthony has done incredibly well, the group have done incredibly well to play without them, but we will be delighted to get them back if we can but there's no guarantee with that."

"The next two weeks hopefully we can see both of them in training and hopefully they will be fit for Brighton."

"My belief is we would have a much better chance if they were available."

On the positive side, the clean sheet at Goodison Park was Newcastle's first in the league since the opening day of the season.

Howe believes that is something to build on when they return from the international break.

"We did look more solid, that's our best defensive performance of the season," he added.

"Everton are difficult to play against, there is a lot of direct play and one mistake can be fatal against them."

"I was really pleased with that aspect of our play, we were much better with the ball, a big step forward and it is the best we have been in the first two-thirds of the pitch."

"We controlled the game and created the moments it was just the final ball was off, the individual actions were off in the attacking area."

"That is the frustration. We had the defensive part of it, just not the attacking part."

"We know we can play better, we know we can do more and that is the challenge I'm going to set the players."