West Ham United 1-0 Burnley

Mark Noble scored West Ham's eighth goal of the Premier League season

Mark Noble's first-half strike earned West Ham their first Premier League win in seven games as they beat Burnley at London Stadium.

It looked like the Hammers would go into the break without anything to show for their dominance, but in stoppage time they won a spot-kick when Ben Mee brought down Winston Reid.

Up stepped Noble. His initial kick was saved low by Tom Heaton but he kept his composure to tuck in the rebound.

Noble and Pedro Obiang both struck the woodwork with brilliant shots and Burnley's Matt Lowton produced a goal-saving block to deny Aaron Cresswell.

The Clarets improved markedly after the break. Keeper Darren Randolph made a great one-handed save to keep out Scott Arfield's free-kick and Sam Vokes headed over with the goal gaping.

Victory lifted the Hammers four points clear of the relegation zone and up to 15th in the table.

Relive the action from London Stadium

Reaction to Wednesday's other Premier League games

Hammers welcome in-tune Carroll

Andy Carroll (centre) was a menace in the Burnley penalty area

Throw the ball into the box and Andy Carroll will get his head to it.

It is a simple tactic that has worked in the past and will continue to pay dividends for West Ham if they can keep their 6ft 4in bulldozer fit.

The 27-year-old Geordie striker made his first start since August after recovering from a knee injury, and bullied the Clarets defence during the 83 minutes he played.

He only managed one header on target, and should have done better with another after just two minutes. However, his big strength is the ability to pull two defenders away, allowing his team-mates more space.

The Hammers have missed their target man immensely - can they keep him fit for the rest of the season?

Sluggish start costs Burnley

Sam Vokes should have done better with a header from six yards

Had the Clarets played the first half with the same conviction they showed in the second then there might have been a different outcome.

Manager Sean Dyche's side were a different proposition after the break. Cresswell cleared from the goal-line with Vokes ready to stab in, before the striker inexplicably headed over from six yards with an open goal in front of him.

And 17 minutes before full-time, Randolph pulled off a great save to prevent Arfield's low free-kick from creeping in.

It was an improvement, but again not good enough.

Burnley are five points clear of the relegation zone, but that is now only one point from a possible 20 away from home this season. They need to start picking up on their travels or they will face another scrap for survival.

Man of the match - Andy Carroll

An immense presence in attack for the Hammers - he took part in 17 aerial duels and won more than 60% of them, and he also had six efforts on goal

'Carroll is a miracle'

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic: "It was a very important game for us. It was a very long game - the longest game we've been involved in.

"Well done to the players, we showed the character. I think we deserved it. We dominated the first half and we had shots that hit the post. We should have been ahead by more than one goal looking at the quantities of chances."

Bilic on striker Carroll: "It's no secret I'm a big fan of him. I'm not a big fan because he's a cousin or relative. It's what I see on the training pitch. He is a miracle. What he gives to the team is massive."

Burnley manager Sean Dyche on the penalty: "I'm frustrated we can't get the decision. It's a clear foul on our keeper Tom Heaton [in the build up].

"Every other keeper in the league would have gone down and flailed around on the ground.

"Ours does it the proper way and that used to be applauded. Now we are called naive. But we'll stick to what we believe in."

He added: "The reality of the Premier League is that it's tough. We took the game on in the second half.

"We have to bring the mentality of our home displays to away games. In the first half we didn't take responsibility of a game that could have gone our way. There was a strange feeling here today and we didn't capitalise on that until the second half."

The stats - 1-0 to the Hammers... again

• Mark Noble scored his first Premier League goal for West Ham since April when he scored twice against West Brom

• Noble has scored in each of his past 10 Premier League seasons. The only top-flight season in which he did not score in was his first (2005-06).

• The West Ham midfielder missed just his fourth penalty of the 21 he has taken in the Premier League, before converting the rebound [17 out of 21 scored].

• Burnley have failed to score in a Premier League-high eight games this season.

What's next?

Burnley have another away trip to London - this time at Tottenham on Sunday (16:00 GMT) and West Ham are at home to Hull on Saturday (15:00)