Ian Maatsen wants to finish the season a champion and land his first piece of silverware with Burnley

The Burnley left back, who is on a season-long loan from Chelsea, is hoping that his inaugural trophy arrives this year.

With the Clarets 11 points clear at the top, and Sheffield United only having eight games left to make up the ground, the 21-year-old wants to culminate the campaign as a champion.

He said: "As a youth player I won a lot of trophies, but I think this one, if we win it, is very good for my own development, it's the first official one in men's football, so it'll be a good achievement.

"If you can win this one then there's many more to win. The first one is definitely [the most important]. I'm ready for the Premier League, for me the focus is to maintain that line until the last game.

"We have a good squad, a lot of quality and a lot of competition. I think every single day when I come here for training there's always competition so we keep each other sharp and focussed. That's the best environment you can be in as a footballer."

The Dutchman has played 35 times in all competitions so far this season, contributing to 10 goals, finishing four of those himself while adding six assists.

Maatsen, whose upbringing in the game centred around Eredivisie giants Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven, believes his development under Vincent Kompany has gone better than he could have anticipated.

The defender, who has previously enjoyed loan spells with Charlton Athletic and Coventry City, said: “It's been a very big season, I think it’s going very well, but we’re not finished yet.

“That’s what you need as a player, I’ve been playing week in, week out, and it gives me confidence that I can show my qualities to the people around the world. It’s very important.

“I think just finishing the games conditioning wise. I feel stronger, mentally stronger, I know the game now a lot better than before so I think I learned a lot in this time period.”

Maatsen added: "The key areas [I have improved] are going forward, not only playing at the back, playing on the inside and outside, overlapping, underlapping, doing my bits in the build up and just playing with freedom. I want to score goals and get assists and the stats have shown that I can, so I want to continue doing that.

"I've got the licence to do it from the manager and the whole team and they use me in the right areas so I can use my best qualities. It's been better than I could have imagined."