Dyche: Burnley’s focus switched to Spurs challenge

Sean Dyche

Sean Dyche insisted Burnley’s Premier League win at Brighton has been “parked quickly” in time for Tottenham’s visit on Wednesday.

The Clarets secured their first victory since October on Saturday to climb off the foot of the table.

But Dyche does not see his side’s impressive 3-0 success as a defining moment in their season.

He said: “I see it as another big moment, there’s plenty of them during a season. I said straight after the game to the players it was a good performance, well-deserved.

“They got their reward with a good win, but it’s just one win. We need plenty more of them, but I think they should enjoy it because they deserved it.

“It gets parked quickly in my thoughts and it gets parked quickly in the players’. Certainly this morning we’re ready to go again. That’s the way it is.”

Dyche has shown no signs of panic throughout Burnley’s recent 11-game winless league run and stressed his players had always “been in a good place”.

He said his side’s performance levels had improved significantly since they bounced back from a disappointing defeat at Leeds with a goalless draw at Arsenal last month.

He said: “We’ve been building on the back of that Arsenal performance I think by finding the basic structure of what we do, certainly the energy – outstanding.

“I’ve said many times, in the second half of the season, statistically we’re very strong physically and how we go about our performance levels.

“The last three games we’ve been kind of seven or eight kilometres in front of the opposition. That’s a big shift from these players.

“They’re putting that in week in, week out all of a sudden. They weren’t a million miles away from that, but we weren’t on top of our stats like we normally are like we have been the last five games.

“It doesn’t guarantee you a win, but it gives you a whole better chance if you’re physically right.”

Dyche said he expected January signing Wout Weghorst, who scored his first goal for the club at Brighton, and Maxwel Cornet to recover in time to face Tottenham after both were withdrawn on Saturday with minor injuries.

He was still waiting to learn whether James Tarkowski and Ashley Westwood will be available. They have been isolating due to Covid-19 and hope to test negative on Tuesday.

Charlie Taylor is hoping to return to contention for next weekend’s game at Crystal Palace after recovering from a foot injury.

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