SEAN Dyche is delighted his Burnley side have started to prove the doubters wrong - but wants them to stay focused on one game at a time as they approach a crucial week.

After being written off when they failed to win any of their first 10 Premier League games, back-to-back victories have moved them off the bottom of the league.

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And with two home games in four days, against Aston Villa and Newcastle, followed by a trip to struggling QPR a week tomorrow, the next week is seven days that could go a long way to defining the Clarets’ season.

Dyche is refusing to get carried away though, and is looking no further than tomorrow’s clash at Turf Moor with Aston Villa, who have scored just twice in their last eight games, a run that has yielded just two points.

“The perfect incentive is game by game to win, there can never be any better incentive,” Dyche said of the chance to go above Paul Lambert’s side with a win.

“Our main journey is to win as many games as we can, we’ve won two back to back, which is excellent, we’ve got two home games coming up, which we’re looking forward to.

“We can only take one at a time and we’ll be ready for the Villa game, that’s our only concern, it’s as simple as that.

“The one game mentality of last season has never been more relevant as it’s a very unforgiving league.”

The tough start to life in the Premier League experienced at Turf Moor is helping Dyche and his squad put the recent good run into perspective.

But he admits the successive victories over Hull and Stoke have allowed them to turn some of the harsh judgements on their early season form on their head.

“It was only a couple of games ago when one person asked, ‘Will you ever win a game?’,” said the Burnley boss.

“I replied, ‘What, ever, ever, ever?’ I wasn’t trying to be flippant. I just thought it was amusing.

“One person asked me after the Chelsea game, ‘Has that hurt your chance of surviving?’ That was interesting.

“Someone said, ‘They’ll only win a game if they get back to the Championship.’ That was another that came out that was a bit acid.

“But everyone has an opinion. I’m pleased to say that one went away quickly though.

“I totally get it. We’ve come up on a shoestring and you can understand why people think that but it gives us tremendous freedom to learn, to improve and to play.”

Paul Merson’s comment about not winning another game until next season was water off a ducks back to Dyche, but as his players have been keen to point out over the last two weeks, it is always nice to prove a few people wrong.

Despite Villa’s poor recent form Dyche believes they, like most teams, will come to Turf Moor as favourites, and that is something that will allow the Clarets to try and play with freedom.

“The expectation on us is so low outside of our own, when teams come to Turf Moor there’s a massive expectation on them to win,” Dyche said.

“There will be expectation on other teams to beat us. Virtually every other team in the division, their fans, manager and players will think ‘We have to beat Burnley because if we mean anything this season, they’re the team we have to beat.’”