Dyche hails Premier League unpredictability

Sean Dyche greets Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho before the clash against Chelsea in August

And Clarets boss Sean Dyche was quick to quote the “Special One” when passing comment on England’s top tier.

Last weekend’s results spoke volumes of the division’s competitiveness, randomness and inconsistency.

Neither Crystal Palace nor West Brom had recorded a maximum in their opening four league games. The Eagles then overcame Everton at Goodison Park and the Baggies defeated Spurs at White Hart Lane, while newcomers Leicester City fought back from 3-1 down to beat Manchester United 5-3 at the King Power Stadium.

“The one who spoke most freely about it last year was Jose Mourinho, saying that in all of the leagues he has worked in the Premier League is still the most unpredictable with the weirdness of results and it not being easy to dominate as in other leagues in Europe,” said Dyche.

“There is that topsy-turvy nature and that’s what makes English football so attractive. The Premier League is part of that.”

The Clarets have picked up three points from their five outings having scored just once. That’s the antithesis of a side that scored 72 goals, won 26 games and registered a club-record 93 points in the Championship last term. But the gulf in class between the two divisions hasn’t surprised Dyche.

“It’s very hard at any level of football,” he said. “There are no such things as easy games at any level, certainly not in the Premier League. We’re just going about our business as we do. We’re not worried about what anybody else is doing; we’re just focused on ourselves and what we can achieve.

“There’s real quality in the Premier League and a real demand from the players to make sure they can win games because there’s so much at stake financially for the clubs etc. We’ve not been surprised by that.

“We know the level of performance needs to be higher and we know the opposition get better, particularly technically and physically. It is the challenge that we knew it would be and we’re getting on with it in a good manner. We have to win games though because that’s the nature and design of the game.”

Meanwhile Dyche isn’t expecting Hawthorns boss Alan Irvine to make any changes from the XI that beat Spurs, despite the club’s 3-2 midweek win over Hull City in the Capital One Cup.

“You never know, it’s up to the manager,” said Dyche. “After such a good result at Tottenham I’d be surprised if there are many changes, and I think their players would be as well.

“Going down to Tottenham and getting that win is a very good result for them. I’ll be surprised if there are too many changes from that side that played against Tottenham.”