IT’S been about more evolution rather than revolution at Turf Moor this season.

It’s not so long ago that Burnley were derided as a one-dimensional team. Playing direct football, bypassing midfield, hit the two men up front, nick a goal and sit back. It was never quite that simple, but this season has certainly brought a change in style.

It’s been clear enough for the pundits to spot it. Phil Neville mentioned it last week on Match of the Day and there have been obvious example of Burnley’s progression with the ball, notably the 24-pass move for Jeff Hendrick’s goal at Everton and then Jack Cork’s opener against Swansea last weekend. That goal began with Nick Pope, went along the defensive line before an injection of tempo from Cork ended with the same man heading home Robbie Brady’s cross.

It is Cork and Steven Defour who have been central to Burnley’s transformation.

The fee the Clarets will pay Swansea for Cork is beginning to look like the shrewdest £10million you could wish to spend, while Defour has been like a new signing himself, rejuvenated this term after a difficult first season.

Those two have started every Premier League game together in a deep midfield partnership, providing composure and calmness to a team that had previously specialised in tempo and tenacity.

They are an unlikely partnership at first glance.

Defour is a man once rated one of the best midfielders of his generation, courted by Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, and striving to fill the enormous potential on show in his teenage years at Standard Liege when he captained the side to their first Belgian title in 25 years.

Cork’s career has been more of a slow burner. He was a regular for England age-group sides but at 19 was on the third of six different clubs he would join on loan from Chelsea.

He would captain the Blues’ youth and reserve teams but left Stamford Bridge without making a first team appearance. Only this month, at the age of 28, has he won a first senior England cap.

But as Defour explains the two hit it off straight away, from the first training sessions on the pitches at Carton House, near Dublin, during pre-season when Cork completed his move from South Wales.

“Even at the beginning when he first came we trained a lot together and played a lot together and it just clicked. We just see each other on the pitch,” the Belgium international said.

That understanding has been clear on the pitch. Defour adds: “Me and Corky understand each other very well. We’re two good football players who do the dirty work also, we can do both if we have to. It’s really nice to play with him.

“When he’s got a man and I’ve got a man I know I can play it to him, he’s got that calmness around him. We try to get that calmness around the team.”

Cork, for his part, has relished the chance to play alongside a man with a half century of caps for one of Europe’s best international sides of recent years.

“He’s great, he’s got that quality on the ball and that experience,” he said of the 29-year-old. “He’s so calm and whenever he gets the ball he knows what his next pass is and he knows what his next idea is. You can tell that he’s got that quality as a football player.

“Jeff (Hendrick) is playing just in front as well and working hard and getting the goals. He’s giving us another option which is helping. I feel like we’ve bonded really well and we’ve got that good relationship on the pitch.”

So are the two bringing the best out of each other? “Definitely,” said Cork. “We’ve had a great start and hopefully we’ll keep saying the same things even through the bad patches.

“We’ll still be going well, we’re still trying and playing well. At the minute I’m really enjoying playing football with these lads and being part of this training group and being around everyone.”

Defour adds: “The work with Jack Cork makes us one of the duos performing very well in the mid-table of the Premier League.

“When we played against Man City, they are a way above everyone at the moment. But me and Corky are doing things the way we do and it’s working very well at the moment.”