Match verdict: Burnley's Legion of Super-Heroes power past Swansea to go top of 'kryptonite' laced Championship

The division's volatile behaviour had led the legendary Manchester City defender to infer that every side within it had inherited power-draining capabilities.

Burnley had looked superhuman on occasions — notably in games away at Huddersfield Town and Wigan Athletic — but had failed to blow anyone away at Turf Moor.

Well, the 4-0 victory over Swansea City at the weekend, which carried the Clarets to the top of the table, might just have been their 'Superman' moment.

With nobody to play the role of Lex Luthor for The Jacks — as Brandon Thomas-Asante, Callum Robinson and Harry Clarke had portrayed when debilitating the Clarets in recent weeks — the home side shed their Clark Kent personas to become superheroes.

"This league is just set with booby traps," Kompany had told the Burnley Express in his pre-match press conference. "It's kryptonite and everybody is passing their kryptonite on to someone else. It doesn't seem to follow any logic.

"It's why I hammer it home for people to stay calm and focussed and to not participate too much in those ups and downs. I don't think we've had ups and downs, I just don't think we've always had the results that we've deserved."

They got their just reward on this occasion. Burnley were imperious and, while Kompany was reluctant to divulge his opinion, it was their best and arguably most accomplished performance of the campaign so far, trumping those at the John Smith's Stadium and the DW Stadium.

And it was another of the former Belgium international's premonitions that embellished the script against Russell Martin's men, who had knitted together four league wins to close in on their hosts.

The 36-year-old had explained the role of his full backs in layman's terms, outlining the logistics in understandable bitesize portions for the press. Both combined for the opener, with Ian Maatsen setting up Vitinho with an exquisite delivery from left to right.

"Both full backs for me have an important role going forward, the timing of it might be different depending on the game," he said. "Ian [Maatsen] has been high and wide, but he's been inside as well, he's been able to create danger from his runs inside, underlapping sometimes.

"Overlapping, it depends on the problem we're facing at the weekend. The role always stays balanced with attacking and defending, but whether they're inside or outside, of if they're attacking the first phase or the second phase, you'd be surprised how much these details change every weekend. It's very fluid."

The ex-Anderlecht head coach continued to share his synopsis on the mechanics of his full backs and wingers, a relationship that was paramount to the Clarets' success against the side from South Wales.

With Joel Latibeaudiere and Matthew Sorinola either pinned back or effectively made redundant as Burnley played through the press, the two pairs were able to exploit the pockets alongside Ben Cabango and Nathan Wood.

It was a theme that became more and more apparent after Maatsen and Anass Zaroury, on his full home debut, combined to tee up Jay Rodriguez just as the half-hour mark was about to strike.

Kompany went on: "The role of the full back is still as offensive as an old school full back, and defensive, but the biggest difference is that you see very few young full backs coming through academies that can play inside and outside. Tactically, that can change everything.

"The real luxury of full backs nowadays is if they can play inside and outside, it's such an important feature. If you have a winger inside, you need a full back who can play outside."

Burnley seem to have the perfect blend. Vitinho's burst infield engineered the break, Tella pressurised Wood from Cabango's poor pass, Brownhill picked out Zaroury and the summer signing from Charleroi scored his first goal for the club when firing low across Steven Benda.

"If you have a winger outside, you need a full back who can play inside," said Kompany. "The ideal combination is when you have a winger and a full back who can play inside and outside.

"Then you can change it and it becomes more difficult [for the opposition] to set tactics against it, to track it and trap them. It's a trend that is just going to keep on going that way."

"Man of Steel" Tella, who was kicked and pulled from pillar to post, was just as damaging when running the inside and outside channels but, after Taylor Harwood-Bellis had diverted Joel Piroe's effort from Sorinola's searching pass, and Arijanet Muric had held onto Cabango's header from a Matt Grimes corner, it was the Zaroury and Maatsen combination that played a part in the fourth and final goal.

Josh Cullen claimed another assist when slipping Rodriguez into the penalty area alongside the already yellow-carded Cabango and finished first time to register his seventh goal of the season and reclaim his rank of leading scorer.

"He is [enjoying his football]," Kompany said, in reference to the hometown hero. "A player like him lives off the vibe that he gets from his team-mates. We've been having a lot of the ball and for strikers like him, that's what they love the most."

Piroe was unmasked as the arch-nemesis of the piece when dismissed for a stamp on Cullen, forcing the away side to finish the game with 10 men, but it failed to take the gloss off an impressive afternoon for Burnley's Legion of Super-Heroes.