BURNLEY manager Sean Dyche is aiming to buck a Premier League trend and bounce back, but says the first month of the new season has highlighted the difficulties they face.

Only around a quarter of the 70 teams relegated from the top flight since the start of the Premier League in 1992/93 have succeed in bouncing straight back. Of the last 36 teams relegated, only eight have secured an immediate promotion.

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Dyche said the statistics are not to be feared.

But he admitted they serve to highlight the size of the task.

“We know the challenges. I’m not playing it down. And there is my fact-backer – eight teams (from 36),” he said.

“It’s a big challenge. It’s not an easy task and it’s right there in front of us.

“You don’t come out of it (the Premier League) and then miraculously go back up. It’s not that easy.

“We, I feel, are strong and we have a chance at it, of course.

“But the stats have backed what I was thinking.

“I’m just telling it how it is.

“There’s no proving people wrong, we look to prove ourselves right that we are to be reckoned with.

“There’s always a reality to how I work, and there’s a positive reality.

“I think our fans have become more keen-eyed to it all after going up, the challenge we had to get up and the challenge we had in going up, and then the challenge of the Premier League.

“We had moved forward from the last time the club was in the Premier League, but the market had moved forward even further, especially the financial market.

“The fans I talk to say it’s going to be a tough division, and that stat shows that.”

After two draws and one defeat, Burnley earned their first win of the season at home to Brentford on Saturday, less than 24 hours after making Bees striker Andre Gray their new club record £6million signing.

And Dyche said another obstacle that the Clarets are facing this season is the approach of the opposition.

“I think the psychology has changed.

“Teams have become a bit more ... not respectful, that’s the wrong word, because that implies we weren’t respected – but no we’re seen as a more serious campaigner.

“People two-three years ago looked and thought ‘They’re all right, Burnley’. But now because we’ve just been in the Premier League people think ‘Ooh, it’s Burnley’.

“Therefore for the psychology of the opposition has changed.

“Teams have come to absorb the game.

“Against Birmingham I was pleased with the number of good chances we created because it means we can break down the teams who can absorb.

I feel there’s a perception out there that we’re a strong side and therefore a side to be reckoned with, and that’s the feedback I’ve had off the managers so far.

“That’s a good thing, because that means we are taken more seriously and that can only be good for a club like Burnley.”