SEAN Dyche says Burnley’s ‘underdogs’ tag will not change the pressure he puts on himself or his players.

The Clarets are preparing for their last pre-season week knowing full well that they go into the new Premier League campaign as relegation favourites.

But while that may induce an attitude of ‘nothing to lose and everything to gain’, Dyche insists he still expects high standards.

“Our demand is high,” he said. “I’m a young manager, ambitious. I want my staff and the group to be ambitious.

“We’re not here just to say ‘isn’t it lovely!'

“Winning is winning, losing is not so good, so my demand is to win, it’s just a tougher challenge.

“The running curve of results – last year win, win, win, draw, win, win is not so easy to come by in the Premier League.

“We’ll tick as many boxes as we can.”

Burnley defied the odds to win automatic promotion from the Championship, having started the campaign among the bookmakers’ tips to go down.

Dyche is ready to tap into the strong mentality which stood them in good stead again.

“It’s no different to last season, he said.

“We were written off, called the underdogs, sixth favourites for relegation, bottom six budget, all the rest of it.

“But we’re formulating a group.

“The group is powerful – I believe in it.

“We’re demanding and I think we played some very good football, we had some great times, so it can be done.”