STEVEN Defour insists Burnley have to be aiming for a top-half finish at the very least this season as they seek to end their slump in form at Newcastle on Wednesday.

The Clarets haven’t won since the 1-0 Turf Moor success over Stoke City in mid-December.

That was a win that took Sean Dyche’s side into the top four for 24 hours, but seven league games later they are down to eighth.

The gap over West Ham in 11th remains a comfortable eight points but Defour believes remaining in the top 10 has to be the target for Burnley over the last 14 games.

“We need top 10, that’s my honest opinion. We just need to keep working to try and stay in the top 10 and that will be a nice evolution from last year,” the Belgian midfielder said.

“Maybe next year we can do even better. I’m confident that we can achieve that. It would be nice to get those 40 points on the board as quickly as possible and then crack on.”

Despite their recent run of results Burnley remain in a strong position, a virtue of their flying start to the campaign.

They remain 12 points clear of the drop zone though and are in a far better position than a year ago, sitting just six points shy of the total of 40 they achieved in 2016/17.

Burnley had a seven-game winless run in the Premier League in February and March last season and Defour believes a similar streak was inevitable at some point this term.

“I would prefer to be in our position than half of the other teams,” the 29-year-old said.

“Every team in the Premier League has a spell where it’s not working for them and this is our spell. We just have to get that win really quickly.

“We’re still doing well but we could have done better. It’s just those fine details. If you look at where we came from last year we also had a spell in January/February where we didn’t get a win for a while.

“They’re strange games sometimes where one decision or one goal makes the difference.”

Burnley’s start to the season has certainly taken the pressure of the desperate need to claim a win, but Defour insists that doesn’t mean the desire to claim three point has diminished within the Clarets squad.

“We’re in that strange position, it’s not like we ‘have’ to win,” he said.

“Of course we want to win but we’re in a good position and if we continue like this at some point we’re going to win.

“The games we’ve played at home have been against big teams - we’ve played Tottenham, Liverpool and United. They’re not easy games so it is possible to lose them but you know you can get something from them if you’re on it.

“With the away games Brighton was a tight game, we should have won at Huddersfield, but we just have to keep on working.”