ONE of the least surprising Premier League stats of the weekend was that George Boyd had covered the most distance of any player in the top flight.

Boyd ran 600 metres further than anyone else in the Premier League as he covered 12.9kms in the win over QPR.

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The 29-year-old’s statistics for ground covered this season make for eye-watering reading. While Burnley have outrun the opposition in all 21 Premier League games so far, Boyd is topping the solo charts on a regular basis as well.

You could call him the ‘marathon man’, if it wasn’t for the fact it should be plural. In the 10 Premier League games since November 22 Boyd has run 128.5kms, which equates to three marathons in 50 days, in around 15 hours of playing time.

Sean Dyche says he has never seen a player cover more ground in a match than Boyd, but that wasn’t in a Burnley shirt, it came against the Clarets for his previous club, Hull City.

“We played Hull the season before last and he ran 14k, which is the highest I’ve ever seen from a player, so it wasn’t a surprise when we brought him,” said the Burnley boss.

“We didn’t buy him for that reason, it’s a great benefit, but I bought him because I think he’s a very good player, which he’s absolutely proving to be, but it’s a massive bonus if you’ve got someone who is willing to run that hard and that consistently.”

Burnley are covering 116.1kms a game on average this season, the highest in the league, but Dyche believes there has to be more to the numbers than simply running around.

“It’s working smart, not just hard,” he said. “You’ve got to work smart and that’s what pleases me, the players are willing to cover the ground but they’re working in a manner that is efficient for the team to perform.

“To play with two strikers in every game but one shows the players are willing to accept that demand and work from their positions into creative positions in attack and come back into a framework in defence.

“The one thing for sure I know about football is that you’ve got to run around, but you’ve got to run around intelligently, you can’t just be a crisp packet in the wind, there’s got to be more to it than that.”

Boyd, who comes up against his boyhood team Crystal Palace tomorrow, has also delivered vital goals since his £3million move from Hull in the summer.

After scoring just twice in 40 games last season, he has four in 20 for Burnley.

His work-ethic and levels of fitness help to mark him out as a top player, according to Clarets chief Dyche, who said the best players in the world tend to blend their skill with a high work-rate.

“If you look at virtually all of the top players in world football I bet you most cover a lot of ground,” he added.

“When we played at Arsenal Alexis Sanchez, in a team that had 63 per cent possession, covered 12.8kms, so he’s in possession most of the time but still covered 12.8km.

“If you’re in possession most of the time you should cover less in theory but he covered 12.8, it’s a top player doing what top players do.”