Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has described his side's injury-time defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates tonight as 'sickening'.

The Magpies were denied a hard-fought point when Thomas Vermaelen netted a 94th-minute winner from Theo Walcott's cross to snatch Arsenal a 2-1 victory.

Despite his frustration at the loss, Pardew applauded his players for their commitment and believes that a draw would have been a fair result.

"To get beaten in the last minute is really sickening for us. Great teams score late goals but overall we deserved a point," he said.

"A last-minute defeat is galling. Our right-back got injured and we couldn't sub him, because we'd used all three already.

"We really ran out of steam. The five minutes at the end didn't help us. You couldn't fault us for commitment and effort. We've had such a great season but we're going to have days that don't go our way."

Newcastle now sit eight points behind the Gunners in the Premier League table.