Burnley boss Sean Dyche insists it's getting harder for them to compete with the top Premier League sides

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Sean Dyche believes the imminent arrival of Alexis Sanchez at Saturday's opponents Manchester United highlights the huge challenge facing the likes of Burnley to keep afloat in the Premier League.

Sanchez is expected to sign a deal worth £500,000 a week at Old Trafford, more than the wage bill of the Burnley squad who will look to end their six-match winless run against Jose Mourinho's men at Turf Moor.

Despite their recent slump, the Clarets have continued to exceed expectations in the top-flight, but Dyche conceded the spending power of the top clubs is making it increasingly difficult to do so.

 Sean Dyche insists Burnley have a challenge to keep afloat in the Premier League

Dyche believes the imminent arrival of Alexis Sanchez at Manchester United highlights that

Dyche said: 'I don't think any of us are surprised by the gap in the Premier League - I think it's been there a long time and it's getting harder year on year since the business model of football has changed.

'I always got the impression when I was younger that even the big clubs with the spending power had an eye on the business side of things.

'It seems to me now that people are putting more and more money in. It doesn't seem to be a six-monthly thing any more - the big clubs have big backers and they are going get backed continually.'

While Burnley can only dream of offering a player a six-figure weekly salary, the astronomical sums commanded by stars like Sanchez still have a direct effect on clubs like the Clarets by distorting the market further down.

'Every time a super-power spends enormous money on a player that drip-feeds down so every player you phone about has gone miraculously up in value,' added Dyche.

'They will look at it and say, he might not be as good as that, but he must be somewhere nearer on the sliding scale.'

Dyche will be boosted by the timely return of Scott Arfield for the visit of United after the midfielder suffered a hamstring strain in the New Year's Day defeat by Liverpool, but striker Jon Walters has been ruled out for up to eight weeks following knee surgery.

Dyche will be boosted by the timely return of Scott Arfield for the visit of United on Saturday

Burnley's poor run has put their brief march into the Premier League's top four into sharp perspective, but Dyche maintains his squad can take plenty of encouragement from their performances during a testing festive period.

He added: 'Overall I'm happy with the performances. Every single team outside the top six has an awkward run and there lies the gap between the top six and the rest of the Premier League.

'But within that, our general performance level has been pretty decent. We've done fantastically well to get where we are and hopefully there's more to come.'