Sunderland captain Lee Cattermole says they deserved victory over Manchester City on Sunday.
The midfielder insists they deserved the three points.
"It was a great one for the fans to watch and fantastic for everyone at the club," Cattermole told safc.com.
"We set our stall out early doors, worked hard and tracked all the runners. We looked at how they played against Liverpool and the gaffer set us up a slightly different way to match them up in midfield.
"We worked extremely hard and got stronger as the game went on. I think the best team won in the end.
"We tried to get Steed onto De Jong because we wanted to stop him dictating the play. Lots of little things from training went well, such as Benty showing into midfield from the right angle.
"We needed seven or eight players to play brilliantly and we got that."
