WHEN Burnley’s Premier League match with Everton kicks-off on Sunday afternoon it will be just 65 hours since the Toffees finished their Europa League clash with Lille.

It’s certainly not the most arduous of journeys the Europa League can present, as the crow flies it’s just 320 miles to the northern French town, almost down the road compared to the 4,000 mile round trip to Krasnodar that Roberto Martinez’s side faced at the start of October.

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Conventional wisdom within football tells you that teams playing on a Thursday night struggle with the short turnaround to get back to domestic action on Sundays.

Everton’s start to the season certainly backs that up, after beating Wolfsburg 4-1 at Goodison Park on September 18, they were beaten 3-1 at home by Crystal Palace three days later, and then after the 1-1 draw in Krasnodar they lost 2-1 at Old Trafford the following Sunday.

Unlike some managers Roberto Martinez has also said he will be taking the competition seriously, seven players started the games against Wolfsburg and Palace, and six started the games in Russia and Manchester.

This is the first time Everton have been involved in European competition for five years, after a jaunt in the Europa League in 2009/10. Early on in that competition they had a Thursday night game at Goodison against Czech Republic side Sigma Olomouc, and then travelled to Turf Moor three days later, losing 1-0 in East Lancashire.

The Clarets will be hoping history repeats itself, but is the maxim about playing on Thursday and Sunday’s really true?

Since the Europa League’s incarnation for the 2009/10 season, 19 teams have qualified through the English system, not counting those falling from the Champions League at Christmas.

Believe it or not the record of those teams when playing a domestic game three days later is equal, with 64 wins, 27 draws and 64 defeats.

Remarkably, the evidence suggests that teams playing away on the Thursday night don’t struggle as much as those who play at home.

Of the 80 times a team has played away in the Europa League on a Thursday and then played domestically at the weekend, 39 have won their domestic game, with 27 defeats.

So a short hop across the channel may not be the impediment it seems for Everton this weekend, and Roberto Martinez, as shown by his team selections so far, is certainly keen on taking the Europa League seriously.

Speaking before the competition began, he said: “Everything starts with the squad. If you have 18 or 19 players, then I can guarantee the Europa League has too many games to be able to reach a level of performance that allows you to do well in the league as well.

“But now we have 25 players and in the last 16 months we have a pool of six young players who can at any time help the first team. The squad is ready.

“We want to face the domestic competitions with a real desire to do well and then Europe and the Premier League should go hand in hand. They are competitions that will help the level of the team not make it harder.”