LIFE as a Premier League centre back won't get any easier for Ben Mee this season and he will begin his second campaign in the top flight in that position trying to shackle Chelsea's £70million man Alvaro Morata.

Mee played at left-back for the Clarets in their 2014/15 Premier League campaign but by the time Sean Dyche's side returned to the elite he had moved inside to the heart of defence.

He impressed alongside Michael Keane last season but will begin life without Keane at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

A trip to the champions is the toughest possible start for Burnley, but the Clarets earned a draw at home to the Blues last season and generally performed well against the bigger sides.

"Get it out of the way early. It’s a tough start but we’ve got some good games coming up in the first few matches and it’s exciting," Mee said.

"You have to play them at some time. You might as well play them early, you might catch them by surprise you never know.

"Our performances against the big teams were pretty good last year barring Chelsea away. The rest of them were actually really good performances and we were unlucky not to get something from a couple of them but it’ll be a really good test for us early in the season."

Morata arrived at the Bridge from Real Madrid this summer and could make his Premier League debut against the Clarets.

Mee will immerse himself in clips of Morata this week as he tries to work out how best to play the 24-year-old striker.

"I’m sure the lads will show me [clips] and I think we’ll have a few clips on him anyway and there’ll have done a little bit of research on him that will be fed back to us," he said.

"For a defender especially it’s worth watching strikers movements, not too much, not overkill but I think you can get an idea of what type of player they are like. There’s that many games on TV now you can watch and see and you kind of know what each player and each striker is like.

"Some players have different styles but that won’t affect the way that we go about our business. We’ll have a game plan and I’m sure we’ll have the same game-plan regardless of whoever plays up front."

Mee relished his move into the centre of defence, but felt his season at full-back had helped him develop into that role.

He added: "I learnt a lot from being a full-back in the Premier League as well so I’ve got that experience as well which I think helped going into last season.

"Having the experience of being in the Premier League and knowing what it’s all about I think is a big thing and playing the amount of games I did last year is going to help me and I’m going into this season with that behind me.

"I’m looking forward to improving again and learning again and taking on board who’s next to me and bring them along as well."