Saints boss Mauricio Pellegrino spoke of his pride after his side’s “painful” defeat against Manchester City at The Etihad.

Oriol Romeu’s equaliser looked to have earned Saints a point before Raheem Sterling’s dramatic late winner.

Pellegrino said: “It’s really frustrating for us but we have to congratulate the opponent. It’s painful now but we have to accept it.

“We competed well from the beginning till the end, we did 99 per cent of the things in the plan we prepared.

“We knew we had to be more patient and make most of set plays. We defended more than normal against a difficult side, one of the best teams in the world at the moment. But I think we can be proud.

“I am proud of my players because we were really competitive. That is one of my goals at this club, to have a group of players with quality, no matter the pitch or the opponent.

“We have to use this experience for the future. We can get a lot of points with this spirit. It was painful for us to concede at the end but we have to learn from this for the next time.” 

Pellegrino admitted that Cedric Soares is a doubt for Sunday’s derby against AFC Bournemouth after limping off with a hamstring problem in the latter stages.

He also said he did not see Pep Guardiola remonstrating with Nathan Redmond at the final whistle.

The former Barcelona boss seemed to be protesting at what he perceived to be time wasting.

When asked what he said to Redmond, Guardiola said: “I said what a good player he is. I realised how good he is today but he could not attack because they came to defend.”

Guardiola, who played for Barcelona alongside Pellegrino in the late 1990s, admitted it was difficult for his players to break down his former teammate’s Saints team.

“It was difficult, there was less space and we had to adapt,” he said.

“They came to defend and there was time wasting. They deserved a goal in the first half but we controlled the counter-attacks.

“They had a lot of people behind the ball but we tried to win and we did.”

On the exuberant celebrations that followed Sterling’s goal, he said: “It was a special moment and we enjoyed it. I was so happy.”