No shock Burnley look more like themselves as injury problems ease - Sean Dyche

Dyche has been without a number of players for significant periods of the Premier League season so far, starting the campaign without both first choice centre backs Ben Mee and James Tarkowski, and there have been a number of other niggles, while Jack Cork is yet to kick a ball since the end of June.

But with Mee and Tarkowski restored to the side, the Clarets have kept clean sheets in two of the four games they have played together, picking up five of the side's six points in that time.

And there could be more players back in contention for Sunday's visit to Arsenal.

Dyche felt Saturday's 1-1 draw with Everton was one of the best performances of the season to date, and he said: “It’s certainly amongst it, we’re only nine games in, I think the thing that pleased me, I can’t talk about the group coming back together, and when it does - it’s still not fully there yet - it doesn’t show signs.

“As the group has come back together and the fitness has got better, it is showing signs of what I believe is appropriate for us, effective football as I’ve always tagged it.

“I think there were real clear signs of that, the will, demand the energy, the spirit, and also the quality.

“Sometimes people question us, but at the end of the day, I know what we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it, and I think the players gave a good show of that.

“We asked questions, we caused problems for them, we defended resolutely, our keeper makes saves, so does theirs - they are allowed to do that.

“We kept going, we kept working hard to win a game right to the end, so the mentality was good as well."

Robbie Brady has made only six appearances, three as substitute, but looked back to his best against the Toffees, scoring his first goal in a year, before coming off with cramp with four minutes remaining: "He worked really hard and he is one we have to get that true level of match fitness in and this is the final step.

"You can work as hard as you want on the training ground but this is the final step and he has come through that well today. I don't think there is a reaction other than fatigue."

Johann Berg Gudmundsson, Phil Bardsley, Dale Stephens and Cork were not in the 18, but Dyche said of the game at the Emirates: "They have a chance I think.

"We had a decision with Johann because we have got to get him back to running freely and being clear minded about the injuries he has, and he was in agreement with that because he is nearly there.

"Bardo we are hopeful he will recover this week and we will wait and see.

"Corky is making good progress and Dale Stephens trained with us in the last couple of days, but has been out a few weeks now so we can't just throw him back into action because he came to us behind the curve anyway and has now slipped back because of an injury.

"We want to make sure he is fully fit."