BURNLEY midfielder Jack Cork believes the Clarets can compete with the Premier League's leading lights - despite suffering a 5-0 defeat at Manchester City on Saturday.

Sean Dyche's side conceded four times in the second half at the Etihad, not helped by a controversial second goal, to slip to a heavy loss.

The result means that Burnley have now gone 14 games without a win against the so-called big six clubs, dating back to the opening weekend victory over Chelsea last season.

The Clarets have managed three draws in that time and Cork is hoping to end that winning drought when the Blues make their return to Turf Moor this weekend.

"We're due another good result against one of the top six teams soon," said the Clarets midfielder.

"Hopefully we can put it right and have a good go at Chelsea on Saturday.

"It's a fixture I always look forward to when the list comes out. It will be another really tough game because they've played some good stuff this year. We'll have to be ready for it."

The defeat to City ended Burnley's three game unbeaten Premier League run which had seen the Clarets collect seven points and move off the foot of the table.

But, despite the nature of the result, Cork felt there were positive signs for Dyche's men.

"It felt like we'd played better than we had done recently," he said. "I thought we played some good stuff at times.

"If we were to get anything from City it would have been a bonus. We're just gutted that it has turned out the way it is at 5-0. I feel like we gave a good account of ourselves and deserved more from it.

"We'd got seven points from a possible nine for the last three, in some games where we didn't play particularly well, so there were positive signs of what we can do. It's just a shame that we came away from the game losing 5-0."

City finished the game with 69 per cent possession and 24 shots while the Clarets failed to produce a single effort on target.

But Cork felt Burnley were on the wrong end of a couple of calls and did not deserve to be on the end of a five goal defeat.

He added: "It can be tough with them having a lot of the ball but I thought we played some good stuff at times and caused them trouble at 1-0.

"There were just a few things leading up to the second goal, though we shouldn't have stopped for the penalty call. It looks like the ball has gone out of play but it's a good finish.

"There were also the two tackles that could have been red cards which is frustrating because if that's us maybe it goes the other way. It's one of those things. On a different day it might have gone a different way.

"We limited them to a few opportunities and if that doesn't happen for the second goal maybe we see it out at a goal or two. They quickly made it 3-0 and then they got the two really good goals after that. That was the game done."

The task will be an equally difficult one against a Chelsea side who are unbeaten this term and Cork is confident of a Clarets reaction.

He added: "We need to regroup, start again and get ready to go next week.

"We've got a good game at home against a good team who I hope we can put in another good performance against."