West Ham took a 1-1 draw against Burnley today at Turf Moor.    For the first match after the international break, Slaven Bilic’s side looked to build upon their late win against Swansea but faced a tough task in sixth place Burnley.    Surprisingly good defending and some controversial bookings to Andy Carroll led the Hammers to settle for a single point in early day action.

Midway through the opening half, West Ham found the score sheet when Joe Hart punted deep into Burnley territory and Ben Mee was unable to put a trap on the ball.  Michail Antonio swiftly made Mee pay for the lapse by side –stepping Nick Pope and slotting it into the open net.

Moments after the goal, Andy Carroll collected a pair of yellow cards in about two minutes of play.  First he elbowed James Tarkowski. Then he elbowed Mee and just like that, West Ham found themselves a man down for most of the match.

With a healthy squad, other than James Collins, Bilic had multiple threats on the pitch.  With the ten man line up West Ham still had opportunities.  Today was the first time Hernandez and Manuel Lanzini were able to start a match together.  They showed some strong play and Antonio had another good shot on goal that Nick Pope was able to save.

After ceding “time of possession” to Burnley for most of the second half and playing behind the ball for a good bit of the final moments, West Ham’s luck ran out as Chris Wood took a Johann Berg Gudmundsson cross and found the net to equalise the match.

West Ham were able to weather the added time and leave Turf Moor with a single point.  For the home Clarets it’s been a remarkable to start to the season as they are firmly in the top half of the league and have really impressed against the top traditional top six clubs this early season.

For Bilic, he will have to reevaluate whether his target man can continue to be such a liability.  Carroll has at least four bookings already in this young season.  With a healthy side and a Friday evening meeting with Brighton, hopefully West Ham can finally gain some ground after such and abysmal start to the 2017-18 campaign.

Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Cork, Tarkowski, Mee (c), Wood, Brady, Hendrick, Deofour, Ward, Arfield.

Subs:  Taylor, Vokes (45’), Westwood, Long, Gudmundsson (45’), Barnes (81’), Lindegaard

West Ham- Hart, Reid, Cresswell, Fonte, Zabaleta, Arnautovic, Kouyate, Carroll, Lanzini, Hernandez, Antonio.

Subs: Adrian,  Masauku (88’), Ogbonna, Obiang (45’), Noble, Ayew, Sakho (75’)

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Attendance: 20,945