SEAN Dyche declared “the best side won” after seeing his side slip to a 4-2 defeat at Fulham.

It was the third time in as many games that Burnley had conceded three or more in the last week, having conceded three in defeats to both Watford in the Premier League and Olympiakos in the Europa League.

Fulham have been on a summer spending spree since winning promotion from the Championship.

And Dyche said it was clear his Cottagers counterpart, Slavisa Jokanovic, had bought quality.

“The best side won, that’s the truth as I saw it,” said the Burnley boss.

“If you’re questioning how they’ve spent £100million and what’s gone with it and how it works, I thought it was pretty good today.

“They played some good and effective stuff, and the best player on the pitch was the centre forward, (Aleksandar) Mitrovic, I thought he did everything a good centre forward should do, and that performance level doesn’t half help.

“From our point of view, we huffed and puffed, we stayed in it, as we do. We worked hard, there was no lack of work, there was a lack of quality in the final third - we know that is an ongoing thing we need to add.”

Fulham raced into a fourth minute lead through record £25m signing Jean Michael Seri. Jeff Hendrick scored his first of the season to level soon after but then two Mitrovic headers in as many minutes gave Burnley a mountain to climb.

“You’ve got to balance it off and give credit to the opposition, their first goal was a class goal, the second was poor from us but good play from them. We’re on the edge of their box, trying to score, and they counter,” said Dyche.

“We slow them down as we’re good at, they turn round the other way and put a great ball in for the centre forward.

“So I don’t want to discredit the opposition, I always try to be truthful.

“I thought we didn’t make enough of that (transitions). We countered...the way they play we knew there would be moments like that, and they will concede playing like that. But, they’re also a force going forward, so it’s finding a balance.

“We didn’t find that. We countered in a manner, three or four occasions.”

Johann Berg Gudmundsson was injured during one of those and was forced off in the first half.

“The one where Johann hurts his hamstring, it’s a yard over-hit. If it’s not, it’s an unbelievable goalscoring opportunity,” said Dyche, who admitted it was too early to assess the seriousness of Gudmundsson’s injury.

“We didn’t make anywhere near the best of the moments we should have done. We still pressed and didn’t get a killer moment.”