Fernandinho says Manchester City were expecting a strong performance from Swansea City on Sunday.
City had to work extremely hard to force a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium thanks to an injury-time winner from Gabriel Jesus.
Pep Guardiola's side dominated the first 45 minutes before Paul Clement's Swans came back strongly to pull back an equaliser through Gylfi Sigurdsson after Jesus' early opener, in what was a difficult match according to returning midfielder Fernandinho.
"We got the three points we wanted," he told City TV.
"We were lucky to score the goal in the end, of course.
"Especially in the first half we created great chances to score and after, in the second half, their counter-attack made it a little bit harder for us.
"But we kept the same level as we started the game and fortunately we scored the goal and now we are happy for that."
Asked if Swansea's attacking start in the second half surprised him, Fernandinho added: "No, because we watched some games of Swansea before this week.
"We knew they have this quality play, of course. Defensively they are very, very strong because they close your space. They play with five men in the middle so it is difficult to find space to get into the box.
"But we knew that we have some players that have quality to play very good football and to score goals.
"But we got back in the game and scored a great goal."