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EVERYONE seems really surprised that Burnley have dropped like a stone this season – I’m not.

The Turf Moor faithful might not like to hear this, but Burnley, basically, are a bottom-eight club.

Sean Dyche (below) and his men shouldn’t be judged on their incredible seventh-place finish last time around. Last season was, quite simply, unreal and should be put on one side as a remarkable achievement and not a stick to beat them with now things aren’t going so well.

If it’s any consolation, I don’t happen to think they’ll go down.

I’d actually be shocked if they took the drop even though the Burnley we’re seeing right now isn’t the Burnley of last season.

What’s happened to them is a bit like what can happen in the tennis rankings. You win a tournament and suddenly you shoot up the rankings.

That’s great, but the reality is that to stay there you have to do it the following year and that was never going to happen.

So you fall down the rankings and everyone raises their eyebrows and wonders what the hell happened.

Their defeat against Liverpool showed more promising signs because they made themselves hard to beat and that has to be the starting point for sides like Burnley.

Jurgen Klopp was moaning about some of the challenges, but that’s vital for the less fashionable sides. Burnley have been getting beaten and it’s all looked a bit too easy, which is worrying. That just ain’t Burnley.

They received massive plaudits last season and quite rightly so.

But the trouble is when that happens, players start to believe the hype and their wages go up which goes hand-in-hand with doing well.

The wheels come off and suddenly you find yourselves right there among the favourites to be relegated.