BURNLEY defender Charlie Taylor is loving life in the Clarets side and relishing testing himself against the best players in the Premier League.

The defender has made 36 appearances for Sean Dyche's men this term and has cemented himself as first choice left back, benefitting from injury to Stephen Ward.

The former Leeds United man has impressed in recent weeks, playing his part in Burnley's rise out of the relegation zone since Christmas.

And he is keen to keep learning and growing in the top flight.

"I’m loving playing every minute in the Premier League," said the 25-year-old.

"I want to keep on improving. I feel good and I feel fit. It’s the toughest league in the world, so I’m glad to be a part of it."

Taylor coped well with Wilfried Zaha in the weekend defeat to Crystal Palace, save for the Eagles' frontman's individual goal in the 3-1 win for Roy Hodgson's men.

"It was tough," Taylor said of facing Zaha. "Even when you’re not facing teams in the top six, you’re facing great players. It’s tough. It’s a challenge, but I enjoy it."

It will get no easier for Taylor and Burnley who travel to title challenging Liverpool on Sunday.

For Taylor, that means taking on the likes of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane.

"They’ve got quality players and they’re a quality team," the left back added.

"You want to test yourselves against the best, and they are the best. They’re near the top of the league.

"It’s a tough challenge, but we’ll look forward to it."

It is a chance for the Clarets to play a part in the title race but for Taylor it is all about trying to bounce back after successive defeats to Newcastle United and Palace.

"We’ll do our bit, obviously more for ourselves," said Taylor. "We’re going there to try to get a result."

The Clarets home reverse to Roy Hodgson's Eagles last time out, a result that dropped them to 16th in the table, albeit still with a five-point cushion to the bottom three.

Burnley were the better side in the first half at Turf Moor but went in a goal down after Phil Bardsley put through his own net, and conceded a second in the opening minutes of the second half.

Taylor said: "In the first half I thought we played some really good stuff, but it was just that end product that was missing. That’s what we need to get better at.

"We threatened their goal a lot and made a few chances so it was a strange one.

"In the second half we will hold our hands up and say that we weren’t good enough.

"To go 2-0 down so early in the second half put our backs against the wall, but we know what we’ve got to do going forward."

Burnley put together an eight-game unbeaten run following a 5-1 reverse to Everton on Boxing Day.

That string of results carried the Clarets out of the bottom three but back to back defeats mean Dyche's side remain in a relegation battle ahead of the trip to Anfield.

But Taylor insists that morale in the camp won't get too low, just as it didn't get too high during their fine form.

"We don’t get down," said the left back. "We’ve got a massively tough game at Liverpool next Sunday but we need to get back to it, and get back to the level of performance we showed against Spurs (when the Clarets won 2-1)."