Dyche - Clarets can prove they belong

Having lost the first two games of the season to Chelsea and Swansea City, Burnley held United - British record signing Angel Di Maria and all - at Turf Moor on Saturday to go into the break in good heart.

Dyche - who brought in George Boyd, Nathaniel Chalobah and Michael Keane on deadline day on Monday - takes his men to Crystal Palace a week tomorrow after the internationals, and he spoke of the psychological boost of that first point: “It helps, it supports not only the good work, but the good work needs rewards. I think the reward was the good performance gets at least a point. You’re wondering whether you could have won it, which is a marvellous thing to say when you’re playing Manchester United.

“We want points on the board and wins on the board, but I’m really pleased with the signs and the way the group has handled it, not just the way they’ve played.

“But it is new to some of the group and it is a big experience coming into this Premier League. “Going into the international break it gives us that little window to calm everyone down and have that reflection period when they think ‘I’ll get used to this’ and then take it forward when we start again.”

And he feels his players are adapting well to life at the top level, after their promotion as Championship runners-up.

He added: “They’re not literally questioning it (whether they deserve to be there) but it’s that emotional feeling.

“Anyone who has performed on anything in life, if you’re a schoolteacher doing a seminar, you’re still thinking how’s this going to go?

“You sit on that knife-edge of success and abject failure.

“The more you play, the more confidence and belief you get you start shifting that balance in your favour - whatever you do in life, but never more so than in football because you are on show.

“On Saturday there were billions of people watching worldwide, so that takes a growth period I think, for some players. Others just hit the ground running.

“It’s discovering who does what.”