JAMES Tarkowski insists Burnley will never rest on their Premier League laurels despite challenging for a European place for the second time in three seasons.

The 0-0 draw at Newcastle extended the Clarets’ unbeaten run to six games and leaves them ninth and just four points behind fifth-placed Manchester United.

It means a fourth straight top flight season is going very much to plan but Tarkowski knows all that can change in an instant as Burnley’s struggles in the first half of last season showed.

“Qualifying for Europe twice in three years would be a tremendous achievement but you won't find anyone at the club saying we're now an established Premier League club,” said the 27-year-old, who put in a strong showing in front of watching England manager Gareth Southgate at St James’ Park.

“Like most teams, take away the top seven or eight and the goal every season is just to stay in the league and that's the same with us. We know how difficult it is.

“But we are improving. Last year was a little more difficult than the previous one. We did not start the way we wanted to but this season, we are really showing our quality.

“No matter how well we do, we'll still find ourselves one of the favourites for relegation but that does not bother us one bit. We always concentrate on ourselves.

“As a group we know who we are, what we're all about and what we are good at. We show that on the pitch and have that real resilience and togetherness so that when things are not going perfectly in an attacking way, we can dig in.”

The Clarets’ Europa League adventure last season contributed to struggles in the league, Sean Dyche’s side seemingly set for a real relegation battle at one point before turning things around.

Tarkowski, part of the group that missed out on the group stages after defeat to Olympiakos in the play-off round, says while he would love another go at it, qualification or otherwise will not define their season.

“Of course we would like to go there again,” he said.

“We enjoyed it last time and want another crack but there are so many good teams chasing those places.

“I'm not going to say if we miss out, then we'll be disappointed. It’s just about taking it game by game.”

The two-cap England international believes the Clarets would be able to better juggle commitments at home and abroad second time around.

“We'd be better equipped to handle Europe and the league if we managed to qualify again,” Tarkowski said.

“It was something we really enjoyed and we learnt from it.

“Last time, maybe it affected our league form early on but we know what it is all about now. We still stayed in the Premier League which will always be our chief goal.

“But it was an amazing experience travelling around Europe and we'd love the chance to do that again.”

While the goalless draw at Newcastle will be quickly consigned to the history books it showed an important quality according to Tarkowski, as the Clarets kept themselves ticking over ahead of Tottenham’s trip to Turf Moor with an 11th clean sheet of the campaign.

“It was a good point on the road,” he said. “Another clean sheet so we will take the positives away .

“We've developed a nice habit of nicking points even when we are nowhere near out best and that's a good sign. If you can pick up points not at your best, hopefully you win the games when you play well.

“The fact we are now six unbeaten with quite a few clean sheets is quite an achievement and something we are very pleased about. It's not easy to do that.

“We have given ourselves a decent platform to look up and chase the teams above us.”