Slow start to second half cost us - Dyche

Two goals in the first nine minutes after the restart, from Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia, punished Burnley’s failure to take advantage of their first half dominance.

And though George Boyd pulled one back on the hour, substitute Carlton Cole sealed victory for the Hammers, leaving the Clarets as the only Premier League side without a win.

Dyche said: “Unfortunately we’re learning the hard way let’s say, that’s the harsh reality of the Premier League - you have to take your chances.

“It was a very good display first half, the whole feel of it, the energy, the quality of play, the chances created.

“We kept the back door locked mostly, they had a couple of breakaways, a fine strike from Downing, who’s in a real good patch of form, we hit the ourselves and had a number of chances go by.

“But you know second half you have to come out quicker than that.

“We came out a little bit easy, not expecting such a reaction.

“They changed their tactics a bit by stretching the pitch quicker, playing into the top third quicker, and we didn’t quite deal with it early enough to get a foothold in the game.”

West Ham switched from a diamond midfield to a 4-2-3-1 system after half-time, with both goals coming from crosses from their full backs, who were able to get higher up the pitch, and Dyche added: “You know teams at any level will try and change the way they are operating at half-time if they’re not happy, and I presume their manager felt we had a good first half so therefore he’s going to have to respond to that, change shape slightly, but more the style of how they were playing.

“We didn’t deal with that as well, and you can’t afford to have a soft 15 minutes or so in the Premier League - you can’t at any level, but particularly the Premier League.

“It must be said, there were two good moments of quality from them, great crosses - we had a few of them as well, got one back, and at 2-1 looked like we were still in it.

“We had a great chance to go 2-2, then a sloppy bit of play, they breakaway and get a corner, and it’s a soft third goal and obviously a lot of work from there.”