Burnley's strong jaw remains priceless, ahead of trip to Chelsea

Aston Villa were the latest to find out on Wednesday night that the Clarets are football's equivalent of a Marvelous Marvin Hagler or Rocky Marciano.

Whether Burnley are good, bad or indifferent over 90 minutes, you simply have to put them away, to find the knockout blow, or they will keep stepping onto you, refusing to go down.

How many times have the Clarets had their backs against the wall, only to stay in a game and pull off an unlikely result?

It is a quality Dyche and his coaching staff managed to get his players to buy into, and seven years since that first full season in charge, his squad retain exactly the same attribute, at the top level.

Burnley will no doubt need that strong jaw again at Chelsea on Sunday, where they have endured some difficult afternoons, but also enjoyed some highs as well.

And Dyche feels that 'relentless' nature remains priceless: "It's a long time ago, this idea of relentlessness, this attitude towards the performance, relentlessness at what can change in a game.

"I played enough games in my life to know things can turn around at any given moment in a game.

"I think we instilled that a long, long time ago in our first promotion season, definitely, you could pick out loads of moments where the team just kept going and going and going.

"I think the more that happens with that thinking, the more belief grows, and when the belief in these sort of details and the way the players work as a group and collective grows, then there becomes a commonality.

"Once you get that bond, you're onto something, you're well and truly going in the right direction.

"I think we remain competitive, and that's been a key thing for me, I've always said to the players, you can't guarantee you'll win every game, but you can do whatever you can do to be competitive, to enhance your chances.

"We speak freely about that, and I think the players, all the different groups we've had, from our first pre-season, have all had that.

"But I must re-emphasise, I can only guide, it's the players that grip it, huge credit to the mentality of the players.

"When we're on it and the group is alive like it is currently, we have that relentlessness, to take every breath of the game on.

"You might have a soft spell, which we did against Villa, but credit to them, I thought they were excellent, but second half, new life came into the performance, and the mentality and belief to just keep going paid us back."

Teams must have that in the back of their minds, that Burnley are capable of a sucker punch when they have been on the back foot throughout, but Dyche isn't interested in what the opposition thinks, only in maintaining that resolve: "I put it down to learning - you're learning in the game constantly, I didn't know it clearly then, but when I look back at my career, I was.

"It's not about what the opposition think, it's about what our players are learning, their will and desire to keep going, because it will pay you back.

"It doesn't pay you back every time, but over a season's work it does.

"There's other games where it's tight or you're not quite on your performance, that it will pay you back.

"We've instilled that through words, and the players have taken that on, that inner belief and core belief.

"There are times games get away from you because the opposition are too good or you're having a quiet day, but if you have a relentless attitude towards that thinking, I just believe it will pay you back over a season, over your career, and I think the players have come to believe that.

"I've enjoyed that side of what we do and continue to do here."