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West Ham United returned to Premier League action with a 1-0 win over Burnley to go five games unbeaten and move into the European places.
Michail Antonio early goal sealed all three points for the Hammers and sees David Moyes’ men move up to eighth in the table.
Worries that the east-Londoners may be left short on attacking options following Sebastian Haller’s departure to Ajax mid-week were soon ended when the 30-year-old striker, who had only made four appearances since October prior to kick-off, tapped home Pablo Fornals’ cross in the ninth minute.
The goal the makes Antonio the fourth player to reach 40 Premier League goals for West Ham, after Paolo Di Canio (47), Mark Noble (46) and Carlton Cole (41).
The second half was a scrappy affair as the visitors attempted to get themselves back into the game, but the hosts did enough to recover their good form at the London Stadium and collect their fourth consecutive clean sheet.
The Clarets looked a shell of the team who did the league double over West Ham last season winning 3-0 at Turf Moor in November 2019 and 1-0 away in July.
With less than a minute played, Burnley’s physio were called into the action to aid midfielder Josh Brownhill who collided with Declan Rice on the half-way line.
Not an ideal start by any means, but it was made even more dismal for the visitors when James Tarkowski misjudged a lofted cross from Fornals which fell to the feet of Antonio, who swept home the simplest of finishes from 2-yards out- a goal that marks the 400th appearance of his club career (91st goal).
After the opener, neither side had a chance of note until the 26th minute when Brownhill was chopped down on the edge of the host’s box.
Robbie Brady stepped over the subsequent free-kick but couldn’t get his shot up and over the West Ham wall. The ball did fall to right-back Mathew Lowton 20-yards out though his ambitious effort whistled comfortably over the crossbar.
The Clarets thought they had got themselves back into the game following a low cross from Chris Wood on the left which flicked in off the back of Aaron Cresswell’s trailing leg at the near post and looped in at the far.
However, VAR showed that Wood was offside in the build-up and the goal was disallowed – a decision Dyche struggled to argue with.
Looking to take advantage of Burnley’s dispair, Craig Dawson launched a searching ball upfield from the ever-present Antonio who fastened a corner for his team.
The Hammers played it short to Bowen whose cross found Angelo Ogbonna at the far post but was denied by the woodwork and left Burnley fortunate to be down by just the one goal going into the interval.
The returning 21-year old Dwight McNeil has introduced ahead of the second-half as Dyche hoped to add some much-needed creativity in the final third.
And it was very much deja vu for the away side when Barnes fell to the floor 35 seconds after the restart.
Further discomfort came when Dawson was sent off the field – no not for a red card, but to deal with a bleeding nose following the mid-air contest with the Burnley forward.
Claret fans were made to feel the same discomfort when Rice’s whipped freekick made Nick Pope scramble across this area as the England internationals shot narrowly escaped the top corner before the England goalkeeper flapped away a dangerous cross into Fornal’s path moments later, whose effort looked to be heading into the back of the net until it hit the covering Lowton.
It was then Bowen’s turn to have a stab on goal after he superbly brought down an over the top through ball. The former Hull City man was set to score but squandered a golden chance to kill off the game by hitting the side netting.
75 minutes on the clock and Burnley finally began to show signs of encouragement offensively when Ben Mee’s header just skewed wide of the right post.
But it was all little too late for Dyche’s team as Brighton’s win at Leeds sees Burnley move down to 17th, four points above the drop zone.
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