JAMES Tarkowski believes his patience has paid off as he prepares for a potential reunion with the man he replaced in Burnley's defence this weekend.

The 24-year-old had to bide his time at Burnley after joining for £3million from Brentford in January 2016, starting just two of the first 52 league games he was available for as Michael Keane and Ben Mee formed a formidable partnership at the heart of the Clarets defence.

But Tarkowski started Burnley's final four Premier League games of last season and Dyche has put his faith in the former Oldham man to replace Keane, who moved to Everton for £30million in the summer.

Tarkowski has repaid some of that faith with a fine start to the season, and asked if it he felt it had been worth the wait to earn his chance, he said: "It does now. When I joined I was frustrated and wanted to play, I’ve stuck it out and now I’ve got the chance.

"Keano’s a good lad. We worked together a lot and against each other. He deserves everything he’s got and his England caps."

Tarkowski's performances at the back for the Clarets have helped them to ninth place in the Premier League after six games.

Only one of those fixtures has ended in defeat and Burnley have made light of a difficult start on the road, winning at Chelsea and drawing at Tottenham and Liverpool.

They will look to continue that success away from Turf Moor tomorrow against an Everton side who have had a difficult start to the campaign under Ronald Koeman.

"We always knew with the fixtures we had that we had a tough start, especially away from home, but so far we’ve stood up to it and picked up some good points," Tarkowski said.

"It’s another chance to go away from home and pick up some more points. There’s a lot of talk about them not doing so well at the moment but they’re still a good side.

"It might work out better for us they’ve played midweek. They played on Thursday in a tough game so it might work in our favour.

"But we’ve got to go there fully at it. It will be another tough game. If we’re not at the level we need to be it it won’t matter whether they’re at it or not.

"We need to be on it from the word go which so far away from home we have been."