Burnley's mentality "as good as I've ever seen it" admits boss Sean Dyche

But he admits it has been "as good as I've ever seen it" since the Premier League restart.

Burnley were beaten 5-0 defeat at Manchester City, in their first game back - their only defeat in 10 Premier League outings.

But the Clarets, despite dwindling numbers due to injury and contractual situations, went out and delivered impressive performances to then beat Watford and Crystal Palace, and put themselves firmly in contention for a Europa League place.

Dyche's side saw out the game at Selhurst Park in a 5-4-1 formation, with only one of four senior forwards fit, with only two central midfielders, without the injured Jack Cork and departed Jeff Hendrick.

Erik Pieters put in a shift on the left of midfield, and Dwight McNeil, who started off the front, finished on the right hand side.

Dyche said: "The only thing we could have done is put one of the kids on, but you have to be careful - they are kids.

"We threw Max (Thompson) on at Man City to give him a taste of it, but the game had gone.

"When it's a tight one like at Palace, you want your men out there if you can, people who've been around the Premier League and know how it feels.

"It's even hard for Longy (Kevin Long), we threw him on and he didn't have a warm up, he went 10 yards up the way and 10 yards back.

"That's difficult, and he's a relatively experienced player, certainly compared to the others.

"It is difficult, but the attitude of the players has been absolutely first class, as it often is - as good as I've ever seen it.

"Yet again, when it comes on top of us and we're stretched for whatever reason, they turn up en masse."

He added: "They've been unbelievable the last two games, and I wasn't massively disappointed at Man City.

"These top sides punish you. The structure, the shape, the energy was really good, we just made mistakes.

"We've been there and been peppered, but we didn't have any of that, we were scratching our heads at half-time. We didn't blast the team, I just said 'the structure is good, the shape is good, we can't keep making those mistakes.'

"Unfortunately one of the goals second half was a mistake, but we're realistic, they'd been through a mini-pre-season, had one real game, so we had to use that to get ready for the next game, to get tuned in, and it worked.

"We were excellent against Watford, particularly first half, and we were excellent against Palace, particularly first half again.

"We didn't come away from that game despondent, and I think that's shown in the following two games, with an even-more stretched team."