THE battle to beat the drop or the fight to stay up; either way the outcome is the same, but Burnley manager Sean Dyche feels there is a big difference in the wording.

For him and his Clarets, the emphasis is on the latter.

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“Our biggest thing and the biggest psychological difference is that others are talking about relegation,” he said.

“Our fuel is about staying in the Premier League. It’s a slightly different twist.

“Others are scared of relegation. We’re not scared of relegation because we were told by everyone other than ourselves we were going to get relegated.

“We are actually looking at the goal of being in the Premier League.”

A glass half full compared to half empty approach?

“It’s a little bit like that,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a term that I throw out when something annoys me - usually when something’s negative.

“It’s about flipping it.”

It is a mentality that he hopes will give his side the edge in the last five games, the first of which is a crunch clash at home to Leicester City tomorrow.

There is no point in asking Dyche to decipher the magnitude of the game. They are all as important as each other in his and the players’ eyes. He does, however recognise the wider, outside view.

“It has more impact because of the positions in the league and the amount of games left of course,” he said. “But the reality is every game is a tough game for us.

“This game is as big as the last one, and as big as the next one.”

It was in the reverse fixture with Leicester that Burnley experienced a big turning point in their season.

Michael Kightly’s 39th-minute equaliser came four minutes after a new club record had been set, of 655 minutes without a goal.

One became two as Ross Wallace scored a late equaliser to make it 2-2.

Burnley need goals again, with only one in their last seven games, albeit the winner against Manchester City. But that was 389 minutes ago.

Could facing Leicester again be a good omen?

“I don’t think you can guarantee that in this game, in any game,” said Dyche.

“We put pressure on ourselves but expectation is different (compared to) the expectation of Villa, with the size of the club and the investment.

“Even Hull this year. I respect Steve Bruce but he has got his challenges now and they invested heavily.

“Sunderland invested heavily so there are different kinds of expectation. Leicester to a degree. They have put a lot of money into the team over the last couple of years and finally got in the Premier League and I think people thought they would be slightly better off than they are.

“The perception of us? In there fighting, in there to win it and loads of people want us to do it for different reasons.

“I still think there is an undercurrent of fans who like the idea of everyone bonding and pulling together to make something happen, of the club just coming together and being successful, which in our case is being in the Premier League.”