We had to work hard at the Vitality Stadium and left if late before a tight Premier League fixture was decided by two substitutes combining, when Christopher Nkunku took Jadon Sancho's incisive pass brilliantly inside the box to turn and slot low into the back of the net.

However, before praising the impact of the two match winners and our other second-half substitutes, Maresca underlined why he made sure his players understood that their performance during the first 45 minutes was not good enough.

'I think we played two different games,' said Maresca. 'In the first half we struggled but in the second half we were much better.

'For me, the reason why we struggled in the first half was we didn’t win duels, we didn’t win second balls. In this stadium against this team, first of all you need to show the desire to win duels. The tactical side is also important, but first of all you need to show that.

'This was the message after 45 minutes to the players. In this kind of game you have to finish the game with your shirt dirty, because you need to fight. In the second half I think we were much better.

'We are still a work in process for sure, a learning process. Tonight, if we don’t understand that in this kind of game we need more than the tactical part, we need the desire, it will be difficult, because we want to build something important. But slowly we are going to understand all these kinds of things.

'The performance in the second half changed completely, but we need to learn these kind of things if we want to build something important and we want to win games. First of all we need the desire to win games, to win duels and to fight together.'

Maresca was obviously pleased to see debutant Sancho come on to set up the winning goal, but he wasn't the only sub to impress our head coach.

'I’m very happy for Jadon, he was very good. Joao was very good also, Christo scored but also he was very good,' Maresca said.

'The reason I used Christo in that moment was I thought we were creating chances but we lacked quality inside the box. So the idea to use him as a nine was because any ball inside the box we know he’s a quality player and could decide the game.

'I asked a lot of Jadon but what he did tonight was exactly what we expected from him. I know Jadon very well because I watched him for many games in the past and I know what he can give us.

'But I’m happy with all of them. Christo was very good, he scored and he fought without the ball. Jadon was exactly the same. Tosin [Adarabioyo] was also very good.'

Enzo admitted his wealth of attacking options will give him some difficult selection decisions going forward.

He continued: 'When we signed Jadon we were looking for another winger more or less like Noni. Noni’s doing that on the right side - winning one-v-ones, creating chances, scoring goals. We are looking for the same thing on our left-hand side with Jadon. We have already Misha there, Pedro’s playing there, but it’s good to have both wingers who can give us this kind of option.

'At the end of the game I just said to the players - Christo, Cole, Jadon, Joao, Noni, Misha, Pedro – they are not all going to play all the games. All they need to do is exactly what they did tonight: 'If I play I give all my best, if I go on for 10 minutes I have to give all my best'.

'This will be until the end, because there are seven or eight good players and we cannot play with all of them. So sometimes they have to be out, but the important thing is that they are ready when they get some minutes.

'Christo is doing perfect. He didn’t deserve to miss out, Misha didn’t deserve to miss out, but sometimes you have to make a decision. The good thing is when they go on they are ready and they give everything.'