Manchester City defender Nicolás Otamendi has praised the fighting spirit of The Citizens, as they managed to pull out a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Bournemouth on Saturday.
Fought until the end
City headed into this clash needing the three points, having only drawn with Everton last Monday and with their bitter rivals Manchester United having a perfect start to the campaign losing points to Eddie Howe's side wasn't an option.
It couldn't have got off to a worse start as they fell behind to Charlie Daniel's excellent effort before Gabriel Jesus quickly equalised, it looked like City would have to settle for another stalemate were it not for Raheem Sterling 97th-minute effort secured all three points and the Argentine defender praised the clubs resilience.
"It is always difficult at the start of the season," Otamendi told mancity.com. "But we fought until the end and I think we deserved to win the game."
"There are things for us to improve on," the Argentine added. "But we are happy to have won and with the way that we played the game."
Too many emotions to control
The effort certainly did produce quite the celebration amongst both the players and the traveling City contingent, and it was those scenes that ended the clash on somewhat of a bitter note.
Sterling's overexuberance saw him embrace the crowd which pushed Mike Dean to send him for an early shower, skipper Vincent Kompany spoke of the madness of the victory but also stated that there was just "too many emotions to control".
"I do not know whether the crowd ran to Raheem or he ran that way," the skipper stated to the clubs website. "It was too many emotions to control."
"Madness," the Belgian proclaimed on Saturday's victory. "The first thing I did was say to Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva, 'welcome to the Premier League'."
"I thought we played well, like we did against Everton," he said. "We did not score our chances but we have big, fast, strong players and anything can happen."
"We deserved to win," Kompany concluded. "But they made it hard for us."