SEAN Dyche wasn't too disappointed with Burnley's performance despite seeing his side slip to a second successive heavy defeat.

The Clarets have been exposed to the widening gap between the big six and the rest over the last two weeks and they followed a 5-0 defeat at Manchester City with this 4-0 loss to Chelsea at Turf Moor.

Burnley had started well against the Blues but when Jeff Hendrick was robbed of possession on halfway and Alvaro Morata ended a crisp move by scoring the opening goal, they never really troubled Chelsea again.

Asked if he was disappointed with the performance after that goal, Dyche said: "Not overly, you’ve got to give credit to the opposition.

"When you know what these guys are like and know what you’re playing against and know the volume of money spent on these players, it’s been spent for a reason - because of the quality.

"When you know they’re on form as well, unbeaten this season, it makes it a big challenge,

"I’ve said it many times, when you play the big teams, you need things to go in your favour, moments to go in your favour, you to play really well and maybe them to have a soft day or some of their players to have quiet days.

"You need all of that to happen. If it’s a level playing field and you play really well and they play really well, they win, because overall they’ve got more than you. That’s the way it is.

"So, it’s just tough we’ve played two teams on unbelievable form, back to back, and that makes it tough."

Dyche said he'd sent his side out - with Robbie Brady and Steven Defour starting together for the first time this season - to play more expansively.

"We started well, then a mistake in the build up to the first goal, and these teams do punish you if you are opening up to try and play, as we were doing," the Clarets chief said.

"On turnover, they can punish you, and they did."

Brady was making his first Burnley appearance since a serious knee injury against Leicester City at the start of last December and he started due to Aaron Lennon being ill this week.

He was due to be replaced by Matej Vydra with around 15 minutes to go only for Jack Cork to roll his ankle, with Ashley Westwood taking his place.

Steven Defour also completed his first 90 minutes for the Clarets this season.

"I think Robbie’s done great, we planned on probably giving him 70 to 75 minutes, he’s done great to get through it physically," said Dyche.

“Steven, great to see him still working hard at the end, his first full 90 for the first team, so they are really positive things.

“We’ll still make sense of it (this defeat), but it can be nothing but good to have people like Steven Defour and Robbie Brady coming back to full fitness, that’s for sure."

Despite praising Chelsea's display Dyche was disappointed to see more diving on show, with Willian booked late in the first half for a penalty box tumble.

"The only blot on the game, I don’t know why they are falling all over the place. They’re a great side," he said.

“Willian diving in the box, I don’t know why. You don’t need to do that. That was the only thing I was disgruntled about, some of their football was excellent, physically prowess, technical quality, they don’t need to worry about the rest of it."