Manuel Pellegrini praised his side's spirit as they struck late to seal three points with a 2-1 win over Swansea to move to the top of the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
Kelechi Iheanacho's deflected home the winner in the 92nd minute after substitute Bafetimbi Gomis thought he'd earned Alan Curtis his first point as Swans interim boss with a late finish at Joe Hart's near post.
Pellegrini praised an "important" victory for his side following their humbling 2-0 defeat by Stoke in their last Premier League game, and the City boss said the performance reflected the fact that many of his players had not fully recovered from a taxing victory over Borussia Monchengladbach in midweek.
"When they scored I thought this game would end a draw, but once again this team demonstrated its character to go and try and win the game," Pellegrini told Sky Sports.
"We really didn't play well, and Swansea had a very good game. I was worrying before the game because I knew three or four of our players were not 100 per cent recovered, especially Kevin [De Bruyne] that couldn't play and David [Silva] who could only play 60 minutes, and after you have an important achievement [Champions League progression] to restart the motivation is not easy.
"These are three very important points. Maybe we didn't deserve to have the points today, but I think that these points repaid the points we lost here against West Ham, when we had 18 or 20 chances to score."
Pellegrini opted to rest De Bruyne after his Champions League excursions, although the Belgium international came on as a late substitute, while Silva was withdrawn after 60 minutes. Pellegrini felt City, who have suffered 37 injuries over the course of the season so far, will now have the time to recover before facing Arsenal on December 21.
"It was a very important week, a critical moment in the Premier League after we came from a defeat to Stoke and an important achievement in the Champions League," Pellegrini continued. "It was important to win here at home, now we have a complete week to recover and I am sure the performance will be better against Arsenal.
"It's not just a two games a week, I think in the last 15 days we have played five games with 13 players. I'm there every day with the players, I know the way they feel, the way they recover so to finish with three points was very important.
"After that, we see in the future the way we manage them because we are a team that plays more games."