SEAN Dyche insists Burnley aren’t judging themselves against any other side despite setting the pace in the Premier League amongst last season’s promoted teams.

While Middlesbrough and Hull City flounder in the relegation zone the Clarets are eight points clear of the bottom three with nine games to go.

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But Dyche said that wasn’t important to him with the Burnley boss keeping a keen eye on many aspects of the club, an unusual approach for many bosses.

“I don’t judge ourselves against others, just against us,” said Dyche. “What are we hoping for, working for, trying to build, what we’re doing off the pitch, with the wage bill, the players, it’s a whole collective view, and I’m one of the rare managers who has a shout in all of those things.

“Football is changing, it’s a different world to what it was 10 years ago.

“We’ve been quite aligned with our thinking, and the players are humble enough to know the reality - they know that every one of these games is a big challenge, they go out there and give everything, and that’s the minimum requirement, we certainly have players who will do that, and the manager and staff.”

Both Boro and Hull have changed managers this season and only two of the seven teams below Burnley in the table have stuck with the manager they started the season with.

“Every club looks at their situation differently, ours is a different type of club, a different thought to most others,” said Dyche.

“I don’t think there’s any guarantee to it (sticking with the manager), there’s a balance to the reality of what Burnley Football Club is about.

“I think there still is a healthy balance, most people gave us no chance this season, apart from ourselves and our fans, but we haven’t done anything yet, we’ve laid a marker and still have work to do to make sure we’re in the division on an ongoing basis.

“I’ve been here long enough to have a chance to build, and that’s been an individual process as regards this club.”

After four weeks on the road Burnley return to Turf Moor for home games against Tottenham on Saturday and Stoke City on Tuesday.

Dyche is delighted with the position Burnley have put themselves ahead of the final two months of the season, but he knows there is still work to be done to secure their Premier League status for next season.

“Generally I’m very satisfied, we don’t try and prove points, but it’s fair to say no one gave us a chance, and we’re in good shape,” he said.

“That’s a so far story, good shape now doesn’t guarantee you anything, but it’s fair to say we’ve shown we can take these games on, home and away, obviously away has been a bigger challenge, and we’ve shown we can get points on the board.

“We’ve deserved it and earned the right to get the points we have, if anything, I’m scratching my head that we haven’t got more with things that have gone against us.

“We hope maybe there’s a bit of balance to that in the remaining games, but we’ve got to keep working hard, keep producing performances, being as detailed as we can to continue getting points on the board.”