"I really enjoy those wins," claims Burnley boss Vincent Kompany, after beating Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium

But the 36-year-old appreciates that you aren't always going to get things all your own way in a division as competitive as the Championship.

While the Manchester City legend has enjoyed aesthetically pleasing performances and comfortable scorelines, he knows that the grittier, more attritional displays are just as important.

And it was that side of the Clarets' personality that brought a smile to his face as the league leaders closed 2022 with a 1-0 win over Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium.

"We still have to prove that we're a good team," he said. "But I really enjoy those wins, I really do. If you want to do anything in football and be successful you need those types of games and to get results in those games.

"It wasn't our best performance on the ball, one because of the quality of Stoke, two was that we lacked the efficiency and we were not clean enough in the final third. We usually are, that is our strength.

"But defensively it was a good performance, we were really good. We dealt with the long balls and second balls and it felt like we were first to every second ball. It wasn't supposed to be an easy game so that's a good win."

The decisive moment arrived on the hour when Josh Cullen poked the ball home from close range to open his account for the club.

The summer signing was in the right place at the right time after substitute Jay Rodriguez kept the ball alive from Harry Clarke's calamitous error.

It was one of only two shots on target that the visitors were able to force, but they protected it with a fourth clean sheet in five league fixtures.

Kompany continued: "The key thing for me, in these types of moments, if you invite pressure then I don't think there is many sides who can resist for long.

"But I don't think we invited pressure, every single time the ball went back to the keeper or the centre halves then there was a pressure to make that ball complicated and that can give the advantage to the defenders to go and attack it rather than be on the back foot.

"And that was the key for me to be happy with the performance. We weren't awesome on the ball but we did everything we needed to do to stay solid which was good."