It’s squeaky bum time for Burnley – and they simply must beat Stoke

For much of the season Burnley have been hanging around in relative mid-table security, but as the business end of the season looms, the form book shows the Clarets are in a big trouble.

And it means that victory over Stoke City this week is vital.

The Clarets are in the midst of a seven-game winless run, picking up just three points from 21 available.

They haven’t won since January, and what was a comfortable 10-point gap to the drop zone has been halved to just five points.

And knowing that Hull are at home to Middlesbrough this week, that gap chould be chiselled further.

The run has seen our traders cut Burnley’s relegation odds from 18/1 to 11/1 in a little over a month.

History repeats

And the worrying thing for Sean Dyche’s men, is that this follows an eerily similar pattern to their two previous Premier League campaigns.

Back in 2009-10, the Lancashire outfit picked up one point from nine games during a dismal spring spell to plummet into the drop zone.

And two seasons ago, they picked up just six points from a whopping 14 games from late January to early May to again freefall back into the Championship.

So can the Turf Moor outfit cure their spring hangover third time around?

Many will hope they can, and, boasting seven points more at this stage of the season than they’ve ever done before, they’ve given themselves a real chance.

No time to wait

But after this week’s home tie with Stoke, they must then face two away games, where they’re still yet to win.

First up is a visit to a Middlesbrough side who still have time to save themselves, and then must try and contain Everton’s Romelu Lukaku at Goodison Park.

And then they’ll play host to Manchester United who have proven far more clinical on their travels than at Old Trafford.

Fail to beat the Potters then, and Burnley’s winless run could quickly stretch to 10 or 11 games, and that really is relegation form.

Handily, Stoke have won just two of their last nine, giving Dyche’s side the perfect chance to claim a potentially Premier League-surviving win at 7/5.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing