Dunk and Ayari on history-making victory

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A collective spirit was the foundation of Saturday's first away win over Manchester City.

Bruce Talbot

2026-11-01T09:00+00:00

Goalscorer Yasin Ayari pushes forward in the 1-0 win over Manchester City. 📷Paul Hazlewood

Pascal Gross summed it up perfectly: "We finally did it."

After 16 attempts at the Etihad, Albion finally conquered Manchester City and skipper Lewis Dunk was quick to acknowledge the effort required to claim a precious three points.

"It took a long time but I think if you look at the game it wasn't our prettiest game, but we fought together and we dug right into the end," said the skipper.

Following a Carabao Cup cup exit on the same ground on Wednesday, revenge tasted incredibly sweet.

"We obviously were here in the week. It didn't go our way, and we wanted to turn that around, and we did that," Dunk added.

"I think our intensity was outstanding. I think the way we pressed, the way we fought was tough, so I'm buzzing for the boys."

Under Fabian Hürzeler, Albion have learned to embrace the hard yards.

Dunk and goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen were colossal, absorbing City pressure to secure a clean sheet. "That's what we're paid to do, isn't it?" Dunk smiled. "It's nice to have one of those games where you're defending and not playing so much on the ball, and I enjoy that. Bart was massive behind us. Defending as a team, we've had so many more clean sheets."

But the captain also sparked the decisive moment, launching a stunning, quick diagonal pass to unlock the City defence. "I just saw it on, and we used Diego [Gomez] like that," he added. "He made a good run, good cross and then it’s in the back of the net."

Sitting in third place, the mood is good, but Dunk is keeping his feet firmly on the ground. "The Premier League's not an easy league. Every game you go in is hard," he added.

"It's a long old season. Who knows where we'll end up. Hopefully, we can win many more games and be somewhere we want to be.

"It's been good being together as a team for the last few days, and I think you saw that togetherness out there fighting at the end."

Meanwhile goalscorer Yasin Ayari knew exactly what is fuelling his high-flying side: unbreakable team spirit.

After finally toppling City at the Etihad, the midfielder was quick to praise the squad's collective will to win.

"It's always tough to come here and play against City. They're a fantastic team," Ayari said. "We thought that we deserved more on Wednesday, but life is sometimes like that.

"You don't always get what you deserve. So we needed to just put that game behind us and focus on this one. Everybody was 100% focused on winning this game."

The result was a fine defensive effort, sitting deep and absorbing pressure rather than dominating possession.

“Obviously, we didn't play the best - they had most of the ball. It was about defending until the last second," Ayari explained. "If someone gets beaten, the other one is behind him to help. We work on it every day in the training ground, always trying to stay together.

"We are a big family. Everybody is together. Everybody's fighting for each other. I would say that is the main thing. Everyone has quality, otherwise they wouldn't be playing in the Premier League. So working together, being a team, and always fighting together."