“It was difficult but we’ll take the three points. Angers are a well-organised team who posed us problems, but we went looking for the victory and got it,” said Spaniard Pérez after Layvin Kurzawa’s 70th-minute strike secured a 1-0 win for the reigning champions at the Stade Raymond-Kopa.

The result lifted the reigning champions to the top of the Ligue 1 Uber Eats table, although Olympique Lyonnais can reclaim first place with a win at home to FC Metz on Sunday.

Pérez, who worked under Pochettino at Espanyol, Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, was in charge after it was revealed on Friday that the Argentine had tested positive for Covid-19. Pochettino must now self-isolate for seven days.

“We were in contact with him,” Pérez said. “He also spoke to the players by video before the match and we spoke to him before the game as well as at half-time. We also spoke about next week’s training.”

Angers 'deserved more'

The game may have hinged on a crucial save by Keylor Navas to keep out a diving header by Loïs Diony early in the second half when the score was still goalless. PSG then went on to claim a third straight win since drawing 1-1 with AS Saint-Etienne in their first game under Pochettino.

“We suffered when we had to but we had the patience required to get the three points. Matches like these make us stronger,” Costa Rica star Navas told Canal Plus.

Meanwhile, Angers coach Stéphane Moulin was delighted with the way his seventh-placed side matched PSG for such long spells, even if they did not ultimately manage to take anything from the game.

“We matched PSG and we are frustrated and disappointed with the result but we are satisfied with the way we played,” Moulin said.

“They put their strongest team out but I thought we deserved more. If there was ever a good night to play PSG then maybe this was it. If Diony’s header had gone in I’m not sure they would have turned it around. We have no regrets.”

>> MATCH REPORT: Kurzawa strikes to take PSG top