JAMES Tarkowski is hoping his patience will pay off as he aims to prove to Sean Dyche that he is the man to replace Michael Keane.

Tarkowski started alongside Ben Mee in the thrilling win at Chelsea on the opening day of the season and put himself in the box seat to become the long-term replacement for Keane at the heart of the Clarets defence.

But with more than two weeks until the end of the transfer window there is still time for Dyche to splash the cash on a new centre back, with the club having pocketed an initial £25million from Everton for Keane.

Tarkowski knows there is a place there to be won and he’s ignoring speculation linking Burnley with defensive reinforcements to focus on pressing his own case to Dyche.

“I can only do what I can do, I can’t affect the manager’s decision on who he picks in the team apart from me doing my own thing,” the 24-year-old said.

“I’ve worked hard, put in plenty of work in the off season and in pre-season and tried to prove I should be the one in the team and fortunately for the first game he’s picked me. “Hopefully there’ll be more to come.”

Tarkowski has made just seven league starts for Burnley since joining in the January 2016 transfer window, but having filled in for the injured Mee towards the end of last season he has now stared five Premier League games in a row.

The former Brentford defender has had to be patient behind Mee and Keane since his £3million move from Griffin Park, but he hopes to reap the rewards from that approach now.

“I hope so. It was difficult, it’s not easy to sit and watch two lads play in front of you week in and week out and do your job for you,” Tarkowski said of last season.

“It’s my chance now so I’ve got to keep proving the point.

“I moved here from a Championship side so everyone will be asking am I good enough to play at this level? It’s my chance to prove it.

“Hopefully I’ve started okay and there’ll be a few more to come and I can keep proving it.”

Tarkowski was one of Burnley’s star men in the stunning opening day win against the champions.

He added: “It was very eventful. The early sending off put it in our favour a bit and we took advantage of it in the first half, we got crosses in the box, moved the ball well and created chances and to get the three goals was great.

“We knew the second half was going to be difficult, it doesn’t matter how many men they’ve got on the pitch they’re top end players. We knew they’d come back at us, we were disappointed to concede but the three points are the most important thing.

“We knew we’d come here with a chance, we had a game plan and they didn’t really know how to deal with it.

“They didn’t make many chances, the only time they threatened us first half was when we were a bit sloppy with the ball, they weren’t really cutting us open.”