IT feels like a long time ago when Scott Arfield nearly broke the net at the Cricket Field End of Turf Moor to get Burnley up and running just 14 minutes into the Premier League season.

The Clarets have played over seven hours of league football since without finding the back of the net, a run that continued with a third goalless draw on the bounce against Sunderland.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Nobody at Turf Moor is showing any signs of concern about the lack of goals just yet, and the performances at the back are certainly taking the pressure off in front of goal.

Lukas Jutkiewicz is not playing like a man short of confidence either, producing another man of the match display here.

John O’Shea and Wes Brown would have known they had been in a game at the end of 90 minutes.

These are the sort of games Burnley need to be winning though, and after the missed penalty heartbreak at Selhurst Park last weekend this was a glorious opportunity to register that first win of the season.

The drought almost came to an end when Ashley Barnes saw a late shot deflected on to the crossbar, but Burnley were also thankful for a sensational save from Tom Heaton in injury time, turning a Patrick van Aanholt shot from distance on to the post, to preserve a point.

If scoring goals is proving more challenging than it was in the Championship, then Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Jason Shackell, Michael Duff and Ben Mee have carried their form straight in to the top division.

A third consecutive shut-out here means it is also over five hours since they were last breached, and they have conceded just once since that devastating first half spell from Chelsea on the opening weekend of the season.

It has been enough to keep them out of the bottom three, and if all it takes is a bit of luck in front of goal to change their fortunes, then they have a fantastic base to build from.

With Ings ruled out with the hamstring injury he picked up last weekend, Marvin Sordell was picked as the man to replace him, but the former Watford striker missed what was one of the best chances of the game after just 10 minutes.

Jutkiewicz engineered some space for himself on the left hand side of the penalty area, and his cut-back was perfect for his strike partner, only for Sordell to miscue his shot from 12 yards.

It was a positive start from the Clarets and they had another good chance to take the lead after 18 minutes.

David Jones played the ball in to home debutant George Boyd on the edge of the box, and he showed some nifty footwork to turn his man, before laying the ball back to Jones, whose shot from just inside the area was straight at Vito Mannone, when he should really have done better.

Both keepers were involved in the game in the opening 45 minutes, but the quality of finishing wasn’t posing them too many problems. Tom Heaton didn’t have to move far to collect shots from the edge of the box from Emanuele Giaccherini and Connor Wickham, while Jutkiewicz’s 25-yard piledriver stung the palms of Mannone.

It was Sunderland who started the second half brightest, with Jack Rodwell’s fierce shot from distance gathered by Heaton at the second attempt, after he had spilt the first, before Shackell cleared a low cross from Giaccherini from almost under his own cross bar.

The Black Cats were the dominant force until midway through the half, with a Rodwell header comfortably held by Heaton, and Wickham’s angled shot blocked by Duff, before the same player dragged a shot just wide from 20 yards.

The Clarets first good chance of the half came with just over 20 minutes remaining, when Scott Arfield tried to catch Mannone out at his near post with the Italian expecting a cross, and he just managed to get down in time and turn the ball behind.

That precipitated a spell of Burnley pressure, with Jutkiewicz turning Wes Brown before being knocked off his stride by Giaccherini inside the penalty area. Jutkiewicz was already on the way down and that probably influenced Anthony Taylor’s decision, but as Sean Dyche was keen to point out afterwards, it was a decision that would have gone the strikers way anywhere else on the pitch.

Mannone was forced into a good save with 15 minutes to go as Jones played in Jutkiewicz, who showed good strength to hold off O’Shea, who was pulling at his shirt, before hitting a left-foot shot which the Italian parried away.

After allowing play to go on Taylor went back to book O’Shea.

After bringing Barnes on to replace Sordell just after the hour mark, Dyche was forced into a second change with four minutes remaining when Jones pulled up with a thigh injury, being replaced by Ross Wallace.

Two minutes later it was Barnes who almost sent Turf Moor into raptures.

Jutkiewicz and Scott Arfield were involved in the build-up, before Barnes poked a shot goal wards from the edge of the area.

The ball took a deflection and looped over Mannone, only to cannon back off the crossbar.

There was still time for Sunderland to have their own near miss.

Van Aanholt was given time and space to line up a shot from 30 yards but his effort was touched on to the post by Heaton, only for the ball to bounce back and cannon into the prone goalkeeper, but it dropped the right side of the post as far as the Clarets were concerned.