'Let everyone write us off': Vincent Kompany on the outside world doubting Burnley's survival chances

The Clarets now sit eight points adrift of safety after suffering another demoralising defeat at the weekend, this time at the hands of Crystal Palace.

With only 12 games remaining, and with only three wins gained from 26 fixtures, the outlook looks bleak for Kompany’s charges.

It’s almost been widely accepted that Burnley are heading back to the Championship, but Kompany claims that feeling can’t be allowed to fester among his players.

“Let everyone write us off,” he told Clarets+.

“To be fair, in my life I’ve never needed too many people to believe in me or in the team. Just us believing is enough.

“Hopefully the fans have that and hopefully the fans show that, but in the end we’ve got to make it happen together.

“I can’t sugarcoat anything, we’re in a spot where the probabilities are against us, but I want to make a fight out of it.

“The biggest thing for me is to show it on the pitch, that’s the only thing that’s going to give us the answers that we want.”

Burnley are now without a win in their last eight league games, but regardless of form Kompany insists his belief won’t waver.

“That’s not going to change, definitely,” he added.

“I explain it in a very simple way. It’s so important to understand where we come from. There are 250 million people that play football, right? There are 500 that play in the Premier League. The odds of you making it to be at this level are so, so smaller than the odds of you staying up.

“In that mindset, you don’t need anyone to believe in you other than yourself and that won’t change. Not from my side, not from the players’ side. With a desire to show it on the pitch obviously.”

Kompany added: “We are going to have to pick ourselves up and go for the next game. It takes courage and some serious inner belief.

“I can understand outside the group, outside of us and the team there will be an idea that this is over but that can’t live in the group and it won’t. It is a moment where you have to get yourself back up.”