Pep Guardiola described the 2-1 win over Brighton as an ‘important performance’ as we got back to winning ways at the Etihad.

Goals from Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland put us in control at the break before Ansu Fati pulled one back for the visitors to set up a tense finale.

Guardiola’s men held on for the three points and he was happy with how much control his team enjoyed against the dangerous Seagulls in the victory, which sent us to the top of the Premier League.

“Against Brighton for 95 mins, controlling them is impossible,” the boss told the media in his post-match press conference.

“No team in the world can do that. I am surprised we did it for 55/60 minutes.

“They link with the strikers and we went man to man with Julian [Alvarez] and Erling [Haaland].

“After they contact with the wingers especially on the left side for Josko [Gvardiol] and Jeremy [Doku] we could attack in that space in the first half.

CITY+ | SIGN UP TO ACCESS EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

“In the second half they close that space with Fati coming on and [Kaoru] Mitoma moving inside.

“We suffered for 10/15/20 minutes and at the end there was a period that we were composed and took the ball again.

“[Kaoru] Mitoma is an exceptional player and [Ansu] Fati in the small spaces has pace.

“After defeats it was important performance.

“The credit I give to Roberto [De Zerbi] because you see the games they play against other teams, they are really good. They have a lot of injuries at the moment.

“I give credit to the team for victory.”

Watch the manager’s press conference in the video player above.