I MUST admit I am becoming more concerned about Burnley’s chances of staying up as the weeks go on.

We don’t want to get into a position where Blackburn could send us down.

The 2-1 home defeat to Portsmouth was a big loss, but we're not in too much worse a position in the table because we've still got to play a lot of the teams around us.

The next four games are vital now, because it would be awful if when we play Blackburn at Turf Moor at the end of the month a defeat could mean we lose our place in the Premier League.

We won’t be expected to get anything at Arsenal on Saturday but stranger things have happened.

I’m sure there will be a lot of attention on the tackles Burnley make on Arsenal players after the broken leg that Aaron Ramsey suffered at the weekend when they won at Stoke.

I feel sorry for Aaron but it didn't look that bad a tackle.

It wasn't like the one on Eduardo when the player went over the top of the ball.

My worst injury as a player was when I did my knee and ankle ligaments and none of my team-mates suffered a broken leg as serious as that during a game either.

It did happen to Phil Malley in training during the 1987/88 season, though.

With the situation they are in, the Burnley players will have to battle for one another at the Emirates.

They will know that they can't let Arsenal play but we certainly aren’t a physical side and players don’t go out to intentionally injure opponents.

I wouldn't play five at the back in that game, though, because you've got less chance of a result if you just let them come at you.

I think Burnley just went to sleep and made silly mistakes against Portsmouth.

Then they didn’t really respond when they went 2-1 down. Usually they do respond - although most of the time we have gone ahead at home, we haven’t been behind too many times. This time they were lethargic.

But I felt sorry for Clarke Carlisle. He made two challenges and unfortunately they resulted in two penalties.

I must admit I don’t know what he was doing for the second one, but it was harsh for people to blame it on his appearance on Countdown.

The fiilming was probably a couple of days a few weeks ago and would not have made any difference.

These things are not a distraction because when you’re on the pitch football is all you’re focusing on.

He did well on Countdown, winning a couple of shows, and he showed that not all footballers are stupid.

In any case, he has done very well this season.