Man Utd have beaten Manchester City and Arsenal in Michael Carrick's first two games in charge as head coach.
Michael Carrick
Michael Carrick celebrates United's win at the Emirates(Image: )
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Michael Carrick told his Manchester United players to keep their feet on the ground and stay humble after they backed up a derby day win by beating Premier League leaders Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, with Matheus Cunha's late winner securing a stunning victory.
United have beaten the Premier League's top two in Carrick's first two games in charge and now sit fourth with 15 games of the season to go. That puts Champions League qualification well within their grasp, but the 44-year-old is refusing to get carried away.
Carrick has had an immediate impact since replacing Ruben Amorim, and these wins have sent out a statement about their intentions this season after a disappointing run of results in December, but one of the former United midfielder's strengths has been a calm demeanour, and he isn't about to misplace that now.
Although the away end revelled in a victory that hurt Arsenal's title chances, Carrick was focusing on the impact he could have within the club, rather than the statement it can send out to the rest of the league, and he is determined to make sure his players do not get carried away.
"I think it's more about the feeling that gives us as a group," he said. "And the players and certainly the supporters, you know? That's my concern, how that can bring us together and lift us in a real positive manner.
"I'm not getting carried away. We've got some bigger games coming up, because every next game's the bigger game. So we're not getting carried away, we've got really important things coming up that we need to kind of keep improving with.
"Two massive games. There's a lot of emotion and a lot of energy and a lot of confidence that you can take from that, but be humble and understand how we've got these results, that's really important moving forward."
United fans were chanting 'we're gonna win the league' as they left the Emirates but Carrick didn't flinch when told that in his post-match press conference, instead returning to a theme of focusing on Fulham next week rather than getting sucked into looking at the bigger picture.
"I know from our perspective it's just moving forward to the next game," he said. "It's been less than two weeks that we've been together, so it's just keep getting good habits really, and good routines. The boys have been fantastic with that.
"I don't think we can look too far ahead. We certainly won't be anyway. We'll finish where we finish by the results we get. I know that's kind of obvious, but looking too far ahead can come back and bite you really so we've taken this week by week and game by game.
"We'll certainly continue to do that, but we've got to ride it. You've got to use the emotion, you've got to use the energy, you've got to use the confidence, but be humble enough to understand how we could just achieve these two big results and it doesn't just come easy. So we need to continue that and bottle it and use it again."