Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez happy to let Sean Dyche win battle of the beards... so long as he takes the points when his side visit Turf Moor

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Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez will be happy to let Burnley counterpart Sean Dyche win the battle of the beards on Monday night as long as he emerges with the points.

The Magpies head for Turf Moor on Monday with Dyche having joked in his pre-match press conference that his facial hair is better than the Spaniard's.

However, when asked about the Clarets manager's comments, he replied with a smile: 'I don't have too much beard, it was just a long time ago that I did it.

Rafa Benitez is happy to admit Sean Dyche has better facial hair, so long as his side wins

'I think his is much better than mine, so that's fine. He can win that and I can win the game.'

Benitez and his players head into the latest round of fixtures sitting in seventh place in the Premier League table just five months after securing an immediate return to the top flight.

But as he prepares for Monday night's game, the 57-year-old knows there are tougher tests to come.

Asked if his team has exceeded expectations so far, Benitez said: 'I could say yes, but not because I was not expecting the team to do well, it's because maybe you were expecting the other teams to do better, and then you could be in another position.

'We have had some games in which maybe we deserved even more, some games where we could have conceded, but we have have chances in some games to get more points, so it could be even better.

Dyche had made the comical remarks this week about having a better beard than the Spaniard

Newcastle will arrive at Turf Moor on Saturday confident of banking all three points

'I am really pleased with our position, but still, I think we have to wait until January to be jumping because we are very happy.'

Newcastle will arrive at Turf Moor with only full-back Paul Dummett on the injured list following striker Dwight Gayle's recovery from the calf problem which kept him out of last weekend's 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace, and that is a source of satisfaction - as well as difficulty - for the manager.

He said: 'We have good news because still we have Dummett (missing) and that's it. The rest of the players are available and that is a problem for me because I have to decide who will be in the squad, who will be in the team and then you will say, 'Oh why this player, why not the other one?'.

'But I prefer these questions because it means that the players are fit.'