Jesse Lingard labelled Manchester United's win at Leicester a "graft" and admitted the Premier League's in-form side must sometimes put pragmatism above entertainment.
The United midfielder told Sky Sports after their win at the King Power Stadium - their seventh from eight league games under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - was a case of seeing out the game against a side who have taken their fair share of scalps against the top six this season.
Having beaten Manchester City and Chelsea in December, Leicester earned a surprise draw at Anfield on Tuesday night to put a small dent in Liverpool's title charge, but could not mount a fightback against Marcus Rashford's early goal this time.
After the game, Lingard said: "It was a graft, end to end, but we got the three points eventually and had to work hard for them. It was a battle, we expected that anyway but we handled it and got through in the end.
"For us, we just concentrate on we do, you've got to come to a place like Leicester and grind out a result sometimes. It's not always pretty but you've just got to get the job done.
"The spirit's been good, especially in the last 15 minutes against Burnley, to come back the way we did. We've been brought up that way as Manchester United - there's going to be tough games during the season but it's how we bounce back and deal with it."