Burnley boss Sean Dyche praises England goalkeeper Nick Pope's progress

Impressively, Pope has achieved this in just 82 games. And with four of them coming in the last five games he goes into tonight's clash at Aston Villa (kick-off 6pm) as the third most in-form player in the Premier League right now.

And manager Sean Dyche is pleased with the way his goalkeeper is progressing.

"Maturation in goalkeepers, centre halves as well, I've always said it, I think it's slightly - not so much slower - but I think the more depth you can get to your knowledge of the game and how it operates is very important, for all positions of course but especially those two, in my opinion. I think that does enhance your overall game," said the Burnley boss.

"He's getting more and more experience in what he can do and what he delivers, his understanding, his start positions are continually getting better. He's more aggressive with his start positions. He's delivering a lot of good things. Stopping the ball going into the net is the obvious one - he's made some very big and very important saves over the last few weeks and that's an important factor in any team.

"As much as we talk about scoring goals you've got to have someone who can stop it going in the net and he's got an able team in front of him but lately particularly he's made some really big saves."

Burnley played in front of supporters for the first time since March on Sunday, as Arsenal welcomed 2,000 fans back through the turnstiles.

There will be empty stands at Villa Park tonight, but Dyche is unsure what difference it makes to their own performance at opposition grounds.

"I think we're all still trying to make sense of that. I don't think there are any guarantees, but I think we're focused on our form," he said.

"In the last nine games of last season we did very well, we've had a few challenges this season but we're returning to some kind of form and a run of results for us as well, and clean sheets, which is always favourable."