Burnley boss Sean Dyche won't leave anything to chance in the pursuit of Premier League survival!

Sean Dyche won't be over-thinking the total points return required to sew up Premier League survival.
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The Burnley boss outlined anomalies to the fabled 40-point mark in seasons gone by.

And he acknowledged that the current campaign - played in the middle of a pandemic - has carried more obscurities than ever before.

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That's why the top flight's longest-serving manager won't be leaving anything to chance.

Burnley boss Sean DycheBurnley boss Sean Dyche
Burnley boss Sean Dyche

"I can’t affect what other teams do, other than when we play them," he said. "It’s of no interest to me what other teams are doing, only what we’re doing. I’m just focusing on our results.

"You can check it, but I think the stats show the safety figure since we went to a 20 team Premier League has been 37.6 – so let’s call it 38."

Since switching to a 20-team top tier for the 1995/96 campaign, three teams have finished in the bottom three having collected 40-plus points.

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Sunderland suffered relegation the following campaign, Bolton Wanderers lost out to Everton on goal difference in 1997/98 while West Ham United went down in 2003 despite registering 42 points.

On the other side of that, 34 points was enough for safety in 1999/2000, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2013/14 and 2017/18 while the Clarets came 18th in 2009/10 when relegated with just 30 points.

Dyche said: "You have to allow for fluctuations, because I think West Ham went down with 42 once. But if you get to 40 you do think you ought to be safe.

"But the marker for us is just putting points on the board. We don’t overthink the end total.

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"It’s not easy getting points because at the moment it’s relentless, but hopefully it will slow down and we can get the job done earlier rather than later."

Dyche doesn't buy into the notion that only one-third of the campaign qualifies as the 'business' end.

Teams are judged over the course of an entire season, meaning each segment of the season is just as important as the next.

The Clarets, who are five points above the drop zone, with a two-team buffer, have put themselves in a commanding position in their bid to secure a sixth successive season at this level.

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And now Dyche is ready to finish the job off. "I’ve never bought into the idea that games are more important now because we’re getting to the business end of the season," he said.

"What about the start of the season, and the middle. Aren’t they just as important? To me, every part is the business end. Points are equally important whenever you can get them, the beginning, middle or end.

"My way of working, as it always has been, and I suggest will be in future, is that this next game is important, not a block of games."

Dyche added: "I think that was what helped us win at Liverpool, win at Arsenal, and to achieve other good results.

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"These are games where people give you no chance, but results have shown they’re more doable recently, and those results are big whatever time of year they come. We’ve got to be ready for anything.

"We’ve had a pretty strong spell recently followed by a couple of pretty quiet ones, but don’t forget, even though we didn’t perform against West Brom we still got another point on the board.

"We had a blip against a good Tottenham side – that can happen – and now it’s about how we respond to that, with more tough games coming up."