‘The game is so weak physically now, you can’t touch anybody’ - Dyche has no sympathy for red-faced City

Both Emi Buendia and Josip Drmic were dismissed in the first half for the relegated Canaries, before Chris Wood’s shinned overhead kick put the visitors in front.

Ben Godfrey’s late slice sealed another win for Dyche’s club, who still are in with a shot at qualifying for the Europa League next season.

Buendia reacted with an elbow to the back of Ashley Westwood’s head after tangling on the floor with the Burnley midfielder. That prompted the VAR officials to advise Kevin Friend to consult his pitchside monitor before brandishing the red card.

Drmic went for an ugly lunge on Erik Pieters right in front of Dyche and the away bench.

“I didn’t see the first clearly, I quickly saw it on the screen at half-time,” he said. “I’ve spoken about this a lot, but, the game is so weak physically now, you can’t touch anybody, so they go down.

“If that’s the case, if you do raise your elbow to someone’s head, or face, you’ve got a chance of getting sent off.

“And I think he did raise his arm and it was an intentional arm movement.

“Therefore you put the referee in a predicament to send you off. He doesn’t need to do it, and the second is unacceptable.”

Dyche admitted his side found it difficult after the interval to break down a stubborn nine-man City.

“Strange game, a good goal regardless of how it went in, that kind of saw us through the first half and set us up for the second,” said Dyche.

“I’ve only experienced the nine men once, against Chelsea, but that was a different kind of game, they flooded forward.

“It was different here, two banks of four, I haven’t witnessed that before, without a centre forward up there.

“We had to work to try and break that down, we didn’t really do it too many times against such a packed defence, but we asked enough questions, they made a mistake and the game’s done then.

“We come away with a nice victory and another clean sheet.”