Captain Bruno Fernandes praised Manchester United after Monday’s 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the first round of the 2023-24 English Premier League.

Centre-back Rafael Varane scored in the 78th minute to give Manchester United an opening victory under Fernandes, who recently succeeded former captain Harry Maguire.

“It was important to start with a win,” said Fernandes.

“We wanted to start with three points. We had a great fighting spirit. It wasn’t the best game from our side, but the most important thing was winning the game and we did that.

“For the goal,  it’s the kind of movement we trained, we don’t train Rapha to be in the box, but he was there.

“Aaron Wan-Bissaka made a great movement, I had to find him in behind the defenders and he did a great cross to Rapha, and Rapha was there to put it in and I’m really happy for that.”

This English Premier League fixture at Old Trafford was Wolverhampton Wanderers’ first under new manager Gary O’Neil. He succeeded former Wolverhampton manager Julen Lopetegui earlier this month.

“They are a good team. We didn’t know what to expect from their side because they had a change of manager, it was about adapting on the pitch and understanding what we had to do,” added Fernandes.

“Coming here to play against Manchester United is not nice, it’s not nice.

“And we don’t want to be the nice ones. We have to be the toughest ones. It has to be tough to play here because the fans here, they create a difficult situation for the teams that come from outside. And us on the pitch, we have to do the same.”

Manchester United’s next English Premier League fixture will be against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.