BURNLEY are looking forward to the pressure of having four games to retain their Premier League status, according to defender James Tarkowski.

A run of one win in 11 league games has seen the Clarets dragged back into the relegation battle and they head to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace on Saturday with a lead of five points over the bottom three.

With just four games remaining that leaves Sean Dyche’s side in the box seat to stay up but after beating Leicester City 1-0 on January 31 they were 10 points clear of the drop zone and looked set for a comfortable mid-table finish.

Now there is pressure on for the final four weeks of the season, but Tarkowski, who could feature in south London if Ben Mee doesn’t recover from a calf injury in time, said the squad are relishing the battle and the chance to make history by keeping Burnley in the top flight in the Premier League era for the first time.

“We’ve got four more games to retain our Premier League status. We’ll look forward to it and see how we go from there,” said Tarkowski, who replaced Mee for the second half of the defeat to Manchester United last weekend.

“Obviously the club has been here before but went down after the first season so it would be nice to do it for the first time. We’re fully confident in ourselves of doing that but the next game is the biggest one for us so we’ll just focus on that.”

A win on Saturday would put Burnley within touching distance of survival and they are still only three points behind Stoke City in 11th.

One more win from the final four games would almost certainly get the Clarets over the line but the story of the season so far would suggest it is more likely to come at Turf Moor against West Brom or West Ham.

They head to Selhurst Park still searching for a first away win of the season but Tarkowski believes they are due to a bit of luck on their travels.

“They’re all massive games. The next one is always the biggest for us,” he said. “

“We’ll look forward to it, against a side who is down there with us. People may say that it’s bigger than the others but it’s not because it’s still three points at stake at the end of the day.

“It would be nice to get that first away win. We’ve put in some very good performances, especially of late, but we’ve been a bit unfortunate and things just haven’t gone our way.

“That’s just the kind of luck that we’ve had away from home this season. We’re still in a good position so we’ll look forward to it.”