Memories of last season's 7-1 defeat in the same fixture must have been flooding back for Swansea in a one-sided game.
With better finishing, the home side might even have surpassed that scoreline in a game that was just as one-sided.
Richie Humphreys scored an impressive hat-trick, and Hartlepool missed at last half-a-dozen golden chances.
Humphreys gave Pool a tenth minute lead when he ran from halfway and finished with a great 20-yard shot that went in off the base of a post.
Swansea didn't have an answer to the home team's slick one-touch football and strikers Adam Boyd and Eifion Williams could each have had two goals with better finishing.
Swansea lost striker Marc Richards on 36 minutes, sent off for a violent challenge on home skipper Mickey Barron.
Three minutes later Humphreys made them pay with a second, a close-range finish after a three-man move split the City defence apart.
It was hard work from then on for City, and Humphreys chalked up his hat-trick on 68 minutes with an impressive header at the far post after a looping cross from Barron.
City keeper Roger Freestone had been struggling with a leg injury, and he went off a minute later. With no keeper on the bench, Alan Tate had to go in goal, and he'd only been there two minutes when he was picking the ball out of the net.
This time the scorer was another midfield player, Tommy Widdrington, a simple close-range finish after a three-man move split the City defence.
It was target practice for Hartlepool for the rest of the game, but they couldn't find another way through, and Swansea were let off lightly.
"We were well beaten by the better side," admitted City boss Brian Flynn.
"They showed why they are clear at the top of the table, and we can have no complaints. The sending-off didn't help and Marc Richards will be disciplined." Hartlepool manager Mike Newell said: "My only complaint is that we didn't score more. We had the chances, but we won, and that's what matters.
"We lost our way for a spell in the second half, but generally we played well, another good, professional performance."