Nick Pope howler costs Newcastle dear and may give Eddie Howe a decision to make

Taken in isolation, goalkeeping errors can be brushed off as a peril of the job. Every goalkeeper makes them and when they do, goals tend to be the price they, and the team, pay.

Pope, though, is making them frequently; certainly far too regularly to be ignored. He is in danger of becoming a liability and that is the worst possible label you can attach to a goalkeeper.

They are supposed to be the last line of defence, the safety valve, the get-out-of-jail card. Pope is still making important saves – he has always been an excellent shot stopper – but in three out of four of Newcastle’s successive away defeats, Pope has hurt them.

He made a mistake when letting Lucas Paquetá’s long-range shot squeeze in against West Ham United, which handed their low-in-confidence opponents an equaliser. The fact that he had punched a ball he could easily have caught before letting it in made it even worse.

The England international also came for a cross he was never going to reach, leaving his net unguarded, which gifted Brentford an easy equaliser at the start of the second half as well.

Against Arsenal, it was Pope’s stupid throw that gave the league leaders possession in stoppage time. From the resulting corner, he once again came for a cross he had no chance of reaching and let in a last-minute winner.

With Aaron Ramsdale waiting in the wings, the calls for Eddie Howe to drop his error-prone goalkeeper are getting louder and increasingly angry.

“This defeat is particularly painful,” Howe said. “We had worked ourselves into a strong position and had played really well in the first half. Then 10 minutes at the start of the second cost us the game. It’s difficult to know, they scored so soon after half-time, a poor goal that has rocked us and we haven’t responded well.

“I’m concerned when we concede goals, no matter who is responsible. We have to look at things with a balanced head, Nick has saved us many times and made really good saves against Manchester City two days ago. That’s the life of a goalkeeper but I certainly still back him.”