JACK Cork is hoping to take advantage of the difficulties of his former clubs over the next few weeks.

The Clarets midfielder returns to the Liberty Stadium on Saturday having moved from Swansea to Burnley in the summer and then follows it up with another meeting with a previous club as Southampton come to Turf Moor.

Both the Swans and the Saints are locked in the battle to avoid the drop while Burnley continue to be the ‘best of the rest’ in the Premier League in seventh.

That’s despite a run of nine league games without a win, but the Clarets now have two excellent opportunities to return to winning ways.

“I’m looking forward to them,” Cork said of the dates with his former clubs.

“We’ll have to see how results go and what position they’re in but they’re both having a difficult season at the minute. Hopefully we can go there and take advantage of that.”

Swansea and Southampton have both been heralded as model Premier League clubs in recent years but they’ve found that continuing to build and progress in the top flight is easier said than done.

That example club is now probably Burnley, who are following up last season’s 16th place finish with a battle in the top half this season, but Cork is well aware how difficult it is to keep moving forward in this league.

“The Premier League is a very difficult division. I’ve said it before, it’s hard because you do so well and then you try to set targets for the next season to do better but it’s really tough,” the 28-year-old said.

“Every team wants to do well and every team wants to try and finish in the top half of the table. There are obviously always teams that don’t achieve that.

“To keep getting results throughout the season is difficult. It takes a massive effort to try and stay in this league.

“It can all change. Every season you’ve got to start again and treat it as something new. You’ve got to have another go at it and you can never get carried away because it is very tough.

“Hopefully they’ll (Swansea and Southampton) be alright because they’ve got good players and good squads. I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

Swansea must be ruing their decision to let Cork go for just £8million in the summer, with the midfielder one of Burnley’s star men this season and earning his first England cap since the move to Turf Moor.

But since Carlos Carvalhal took over in South Wales the Swans have shown signs of life.

Cork added: “They’ve had two really good results at home against Liverpool and Arsenal so it will be a tough place to go.

“They’ll have confidence being at home so we’ll have to be right on top of it like we have been and try and get the points.

“It’s still a lot of the same people. When I’ve looked at the bench in previous games there have been a lot of old faces, old staff, so it’s always nice playing against your old teams, going back to the stadium and seeing people that I used to speak to. I’m looking forward to it.”