Premier League is unforgiving - Kightly

The 28-year-old winger first delved in to England’s top tier with Wolves in the 2009/10 season alongside current Clarets Jason Shackell, David Jones, Sam Vokes and Stephen Ward.

Sean Dyche’s first summer signing made 33 league appearances over three seasons for the Molineux outfit, scoring three goals, before getting another opportunity among the country’s elite with Stoke City.

He made 26 appearances for the Potters in all competitions - scoring against Reading, Manchester United and Aston Villa - before being allowed out on loan to Turf Moor by Britannia boss Mark Hughes.

After the Clarets’ winless streak extended to nine games in the Premier League with a 3-1 defeat to Everton, Kightly said: “It’s very unforgiving. It just seems every time we do well in a game we then get punished, and that’s the difference between the Premier League and the Championship.

“There are a lot of good players and the margins are very fine. The good teams seem to get the better of you on those fine margins and that bit of luck. That’s the reality of the Premier League and that’s what you come up against every week but we’ve just got to dust ourselves down and keep going.”

The Toffees and Crystal Palace have both proved in the past that all isn’t lost for the Clarets, despite Charlie Austin’s double in QPR’s win over Villa cementing the club to the foot of the table.

Under David Moyes during the 2005/06 campaign, Everton picked up four points in their opening nine fixtures before finishing 11th with 50 points.

And Palace did the same last term when registering just four points from 11 outings before finishing 12 points above the relegation zone by the end of the season.

Kightly believes the same can happen for the Clarets if they start to get the rub of the green. “We’re just so close to getting something but we’re not getting that luck at the moment,” he said. “We keep giving a good account of ourselves but at the end of the day it’s not good enough.

“We’ve got to try and keep positive because there’s no other way to get through it really. We’re not getting the luck of the draw at the minute but we’ve got to start making our own luck too.

“I think we will learn from it, we’ve got to learn from it quickly before we’re too far away, we all know we need a win and we need one soon but we’ll never give up and we’ll keep plugging away.”

Ahead of the trip to face Arsenal at the Emirates at the weekend, Kightly added: “I think the pressure is off us in every game. I think everyone expects us to not win so I don’t feel like we felt any pressure on Sunday or any pressure last week.

“We’ll go there and hopefully give a good account of ourselves and hopefully get a little bit of luck and get a result. It’s going to be tough, but we’ve got to move on, there’s no point being down, we’ve got to move on to the next one and try and pick up some points.”

The Clarets came up against Africa’s most decorated player in Samuel Eto’o - who has been transferred for £75.7m during his career - as well as a number of other internationals.

And Kightly is fully anticipating a similar scenario against Arsene Wenger’s Gunners.

“They’ve got 11 good players and another seven, eight, nine, ten players to come in as well, they’ve got a good squad, but we need to keep believing and hopefully the luck will turn.

“They’ve got a lot of threats in their team, even on their subs bench, and that’s the difference.”