SEAN Dyche tried to look to the positives after seeing his goal-shy Burnley side again draw a blank in their defeat at West Ham.

Michail Antonio’s early goal was enough to hand the Hammers a 1-0 win at the London Stadium and leave the Clarets looking for answers in the final third once again.

Burnley’s nine goals in 17 Premier League games this season is the joint-lowest, level with basement boys Sheffield United.

Dyche is well aware it is the area where his side need to improve but given his side’s start to the campaign the Clarets boss was keen to take a glass-half-full approach after another frustrating afternoon in front of goal.

“It’s a tough one to call,” he said. “We conceded a softer goal than usual for us but I’m not going to criticise my centre-halves, I thought they were excellent today.

“They didn’t really have too many other chances, until near the end. It’s just about finding the detail in the final third.

“It’s rare in the Premier League to go away from home and have as much possession as we did.

“There were a lot of good things but we’ve come away with nothing. West Ham defended very well today so credit to them for seeing the game through for a clean sheet.

“There’s a lot of things right about the team at the moment but we’ve got to find the margins. We’re close but we’ve got to make sure we do it rather than waiting for it to happen.

“After eight games we had two points. So we’ve been effective. But we need to get more effective.”

Antonio found the net in the ninth minute with West Ham’s first attack of the match, after Said Benrahma’s ball had sent Jarrod Bowen through.

Bowen reached the byline before playing the ball back to Pablo Fornals, who crossed into the area.The ball grazed the head of Clarets defender Ben Mee, forcing James Tarkowski to miss his header and leave Antonio with a tap-in at the far post.

The visitors briefly thought they had equalised when an Ashley Barnes cross was diverted into his own net by Aaron Cresswell, but the Burnley forward was pulled up for offside.

Moments later West Ham almost doubled their lead, with Declan Rice flicking on Bowen’s corner to Angelo Ogbonna, who headed against a post.

Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski then dealt with a couple of Johann Berg Gudmundsson shots but Burnley offered little threat before the interval.

Early in the second half Rice went close with an audacious angled free-kick which flew narrowly over and Fornals’ goal-bound shot was blocked.

Rice then fed Bowen, who raced clear of Dwight McNeil but buried his shot into the side-netting.

Burnley have only scored four goals on the road this season so their prospects of an equaliser looked thin.

They threatened one when Mee headed Robbie Brady’s ball wide, and came even closer when McNeil’s cross looped over Fabianski and grazed the crossbar but West Ham held on.