Think you're reading too much into it. Some players (well, actually, I can only think of Ramsey) showed they have a good engine and you could clearly see them working hard. Gervinho seems to be a trier too.
Fully agree with you that we should be proud regardless of talent and purely on effort but I don't think the effort was that special today. The midfield weren't working enough to cover the large gaps and they could easily have ran in 2/3 goals if they had some half-decent players. Thought it was a slow-paced, rubbish game but I don't think we're in much danger of going out so happy enough taking the 1-0.