ORIOL Romeu admits the last-gasp 2-1 defeat at Premier League leaders Manchester City is a painful wound – but believes Saints will come to realise how good their performance was at the Etihad Stadium.

The Spanish midfielder, who returned to action at City following a one-game ban, netted 15 minutes from time to equalise after Virgil van Dijk’s own goal had given the hosts the advantage.

It was everything Saints deserved, following a resilient defensive performance.

However, Raheem Sterling’s 96th minute winner left Saints heartbroken.

“Perhaps the word isn’t robbed. We feel frustrated. We feel like we did everything to get the three points today,” Romeu said.

“We worked very well; we were almost the whole game keeping them away from chances and clear opportunities.

“But then we missed that for ten seconds and that’s what happened today. We conceded that goal at the beginning of the second half and then we changed a little bit.

“We could equalise, we could get back into the game, but all we needed was ten seconds. That’s all we needed.”

Romeu revealed that Saints were feeling low after the defeat, but will soon understand that the display they laid on at City was top notch.

“Right now it’s so hard to take it and feel anything nice because we took nothing away and we had to cover so much distance to keep them quiet and it wasn’t easy,” he said.

“But probably tomorrow, probably we’ll realise we did a good performance and we did very well and we hampered a very strong team offensively.

“It wasn’t easy so it’s good to get that performance – but it would have been better to get points.”

He added: “We did almost everything. We fought until the end, we ran a lot together and helped each other.

“Then, in the last five or ten seconds they scored an amazing goal. We probably left them too much space on the edge of the box.

“But trying to cover Sterling, we left De Bruyne on his own. They are good players and sometimes it’s difficult to cover all those spaces and the ball went in.

“The performance was good, though, and we must be happy with team today. Although we’re not happy at the moment probably tomorrow we will see it in a positive way.”