Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has highlighted the importance of his side's hard-fought 1-0 win over Sunderland.

The Chilean pointed out that the game at the Stadium of Light was City's third in just one week which made the victory much more satisfying than usual, especially seeing as the players ground out the result.

Pellegrini said: "It was a very difficult game and I am very pleased about the result because it was our third game in a week.

"We played on Wednesday, the [Capital One Cup] semi-final against Everton, after that the FA Cup against Aston Villa on Saturday and now on Tuesday with a lot of players injured, so the same names have played all the games.

"We were playing against Sunderland, who played 10 days ago, the last game, so it was very important to win, especially here at the Stadium of Light.

"It's not a stadium where we normally have good results, so it was a very important game."