“I think this is what we needed,” he told Palace TV in his post-match interview. “We were really pleased with the way we played in the last couple of games, but we weren’t happy with the goals we conceded.
“Today, we were concentrated from the start until the end. Coming to Manchester City and not conceding a goal is a really strong statement, and is really good for the team.
“It was really stressful, but at the same time we knew any game against Man City would be challenging. But today we showed character, resilience, and I’m really pleased for the players, because on the field they gave everything.
“They worked really well. On the field they put their bodies on the line, and they stopped so many shots and so many crosses. I’m really pleased for them to take away the three points.”
Vieira reserved special praise for Conor Gallagher and Wilfried Zaha, as well as Michael Olise who came off the bench to set up the second goal – but picking a team meant a series of difficult decisions.
[Conor is] fantastic. His energy is what we need, what we want, and when he’s on the field he sacrifices himself for the team,” Vieira said. “He managed to get in the box and score the second goal that got us the win.
“But again, the team performance was fantastic. Wilf from up front worked really well. We got the ball and that allowed us to be more strong.
“We knew that with [Olise’s] talent and the quality of his one-v-ones going forward, the plan was to try and score that second goal, because we knew with the quality that they had they could score at any time.
“That decision went in our favour. It is good, because I made some tough decisions – leaving Christian out of the starting XI was really difficult because the last two games I think he was fantastic.
“This shows as well the group of players that we have. It’s a good win, and everybody was really pleased and really happy. But we still need to work on some parts of the game that we can improve a lot."