THE Premier League fixture list may now be out but Sean Dyche's focus will go no further than the first game of the season.

While many clubs work in cycles of a set number of games, Dyche insists Burnley can't afford to get ahead of themselves.

That means each fixture will be taken as it comes, starting with the Europa League clash with Aberdeen and then the start of the domestic season, which has handed the Clarets a trip to Southampton on the opening weekend.

While some rivals managers might be scouring the fixture lists for winnable games, Dyche will keep his mind firmly on St Mary's. In fact his focus on that next fixture is so total that the Turf chief says he doesn't even know who is coming up for Burnley.

"I just sit there and go: ‘Right, what’s the next game?’," Dyche said. "Honestly. One day, catch me out. Go: ‘You’ve got this run of games coming up.’ If you went: ‘Do you know what they are?’ I’d go: ‘Nope.’

"You’d have to tell me. Because the next game is always the biggest game. I don’t plan for six games. I probably know a swing of about three games.

"Some know the next 12. Some can give you a run down of the next 12 games. What I’m telling you is that with my way of working, I’m definitely of the view that the next game is the most important.

"I have to have an awareness of the challenges of what that brings if we get there, of course."

Dyche remembers his time at Watford and a system that broke down the fixture list into blocks and it is for that reason that he simply takes each game as it comes.

"When I was at Watford, they had a system in that was about six-game cycles, and there was a benchmark as to where you want to be," Dyche explained.

"Well, it’s great when you’re winning, you know, but what about the one where you’ve got a six-game cycle, you can get 18 points, and you get four, but everyone’s benchmark was that you were going to get 14?

"All the best with that, when the players go: ‘Ooh, hang on a minute. So we only got four? Well, we’re miles behind where we need to be. Oh no, no, no.’

"So then I started going: ‘All right, if it doesn’t work like that, why are you doing it?’ ‘Ah, because it’s goal-setting.’ Goal-setting is good when the goals occur, but it ain’t so good when the goals don’t occur. Trust me. Then everyone goes into panic mode. So the best thing you can do, in my opinion, is focus on the next game."