Sean Dyche in for Manager of the Year if Burnley avoid relegation

The club's annual turnover of just £15.2million is around half of the amount Chelsea paid for Diego Costa, but Dyche has marshalled his troops to give them a fighting chance of staying up.

Burnley are one of the hardest working teams in the top flight and that is reflected in the fact they are seldom swatted aside by opponents.

Their heaviest defeat was 4-0 to West Brom back in September, but apart from a 4-2 reverse at Tottenham, when Burnley led 2-0 after eight minutes, they have always had a chance of gleaning a crucial result.

But there is an overall lack of quality which impacts upon their quest for consistency. The richly deserved victory over Manchester City last month was followed a week later by a defeat at Southampton. Yet that is to be expected and to be within three points of 15th-placed Hull after 30 games is better than most would have forecast back in August.

Danny Ings has impressed and nine Premier League goals represents a decent return, but too much pressure is on him. Burnley have managed just 26 goals in 30 league games. The upside of that is that two of their direct rivals to beat the drop, Aston Villa and Sunderland, have scored less.

Back-to-back games with Tottenham and Arsenal now loom, but Dyche will regard matches against Leicester at home and Hull away as crucial before the final-day showdown at Aston Villa.