SINCE August 18 last year Burnley have played 32 Premier League games over 241 days, taking in more than 2,880 minutes of action, but for the Clarets the season starts on Saturday.

It might seem a strange thing to say considering the ups and downs of the past eight months, but it has all been about arriving in this position going into the final half dozen games. Burnley hold their fate in their own hands. They would have taken that at the start of the season.

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It has been a roller-coaster adventure so far. The lows of 10 games without a win to start the season and throwing away 2-0 leads against Crystal Palace and West Brom, to the highs of victory over the champions and causing Jose Mourinho to unload the pram at Stamford Bridge.

They are memories, good and bad, from a season in the Premier League, but it was never about one season in the sun. This manager, and this squad, were never going to settle for a whistle-stop tour at the top of the game.

They took their time settling into the division. When they trudged away from the Emirates Stadium on November 1 having failed to win any of their first 10 league games most observers had them relegated by now.

They were five points adrift of safety and were as short as 1/8 to go down at that point in the season.

The resurgence over the next 22 games has been impressive and the Clarets have already proved people wrong by reaching this point of the season with survival in their own hands.

They were written off again eight games ago ahead of an unprecedented and daunting run of games against all of the top eight. But again the doubters have been silenced.

Those are fine achievements, but they will count for very little if they don’t go and finish the job having come this far.

The aim had to be to reach this point within touching distance of the sides above them. The real work starts now.

On paper the next six games present the Clarets with a magnificent opportunity to survive. Their run-in is certainly easier than Hull’s, while they look a stronger unit than fragile Sunderland.

But let’s be honest, games against mid-table sides and those around them are an area they have struggled in this season, and that is going to have to change.

Everton, West Ham and Stoke all have little left to play for. That could give a side desperate for points, such as the Clarets, the upper hand, but it doesn’t always work that way.

The crucial fixtures come at Turf Moor against a rejuvenated Leicester and at the KC Stadium against Hull. They might not quite be must-win fixtures, but they are certainly can’t-lose ones. The season has reached its business end.

It all starts now for Burnley.