Goals from Georginio Rutter and Yasin Ayari ended the Seagulls' run of six Premier League matches without a win.

Fabian Hurzeler's side made a purposeful start to the contest. After Joel Veltman headed over, it thought it had taken the lead when Charalampos Koustoulas drilled home, only to be denied by the offside flag.

Lewis Dunk then headed over from Ferdi Kadioglu's free-kick before the hosts broke the deadlock on 29 minutes. Ayari's shot deflected off Koustoulas and straight to Rutter, who drove the ball past Martin Dubravka.

At the other end, Lucas Pires called Bart Verbruggen into action in first-half stoppage-time, but the hosts doubled their lead just after half-time.

Burnley was sloppy on the edge of its own penalty area, and Ayari pounced by drilling a reverse shot beyond Dubravka and into the bottom-left corner.

Loum Tchaouna almost reduced the visitors' arrears midway through the second half, when his header was cleared off the line by Kadioglu.

Maxim De Cuyper went close to adding a third for Brighton later on when his well-struck free-kick crashed against the post, but the two-goal margin was more than enough to secure a much-needed win.

Brighton has now lost just one of its past 14 Premier League home matches.