Sean Dyche remains wary of the threat posed by Saturday's opponents Everton despite the Blues' tricky start to the campaign.

Burnley sit four places and two points above Everton ahead of their meeting at Turf Moor.

Marco Silva's side had been tipped to push for a top-six spot after spending over £100million during the summer transfer window.

Dyche hopes his team can inflict more pain on the Merseysiders, but says their early struggles likely belie their true quality.

"Everton have put money inconsistently for a number of years and are still close to being what everyone thinks they might be," he said in his pre-match press conference, as quoted by the club's official website.

"We won't be taking them for granted and neither will they, I'm sure. They will know it's a challenge, but they are still a good side with plenty of good players.

"They've had an awkward little patch, but it's still relatively early and we are mindful of what they can offer, while also remaining powerful in what we can offer, because we're in good shape."

Burnley's 'good mixture'

Burnley have only lost two of their opening seven matches, picking up a solid tally of nine points.

Dyche has been pleased by what he has seen at both ends of the pitch. Their current goal difference is +1, relative to -2 at this stage last season.

He also praised the unwavering resilience in his ranks.

"It's certainly been a good period in terms of performances, even within games. We've been good with and without the ball and scored some outstanding goals.

"We've been causing teams more problems and creating better quality chances, and we are still looking quite tight at the other end, so we've had a good mixture, backed up by good grit and determination when we've needed it."

Reflecting on last season's transformative defeat

When Everton visited Turf Moor last season they claimed a crushing 5-1 victory which left their opponents in the bottom three at the halfway point of the campaign.

It would prove to be the low-point of 2018/19, helping to inspire a crucial resurgence.

With hindsight, Dyche admitted the game was an important learning experience, prompting a reset. 

"I don't do too much looking back because we're in a different place now, but that game did give us a reminder of what we are good at and got us back to doing that.

"There were anomalies that day, because they scored with their only three shots on target in the first half, but it was a grounding moment where we all took stock - and everyone knows what happened next.

"We went on a fine run of performances and got some good results on the board, pretty much to the end of the season.

"So, there was definitely a positive came from that negative because it brought more clarity towards what we wanted to achieve and how we wanted to do it.

"We realigned quickly and never really looked back. We beat West Ham a couple of days later and went onto have a very strong second half of the season."

"We continue to learn from experiences like that. You can't under-estimate days like that."

Three points on Saturday could move Burnley into the European spots, while a defeat could nudge Everton toward the relegation zone.