Premier League: Carrick's United surge grows as Arsenal depth fuels title push

Michael Carrick's early impact at Manchester United is reshaping belief, while Arsenal face title-defining weeks ahead. With pressure mounting across the table, this Premier League run-in is quickly becoming a manager's survival test.

Manchester United’s sudden surge under interim coach Michael Carrick has started to feel very real. Saturday’s composed 2-0 win over Tottenham made it four victories in a row, a run that has quietly shifted the mood around Old Trafford and brought belief back into their push for a top-four finish.

But the foundations of this revival were laid last weekend, when Carrick gathered his players before the Fulham match and told them it would be a true test of everything they had trained for during the week.

United had been fired up for the big nights against Manchester City and Arsenal, where counter-attacking space suited their strongest players. Fulham, Carrick warned, would be a different kind of challenge. The Cottagers would sit deep, crowd the penalty area and make it almost impossible to play through midfield or find room for the forwards.

Carrick’s solution was to work tirelessly on set-pieces, which would allow the ball to penetrate the packed defence. A perfectly placed ball from Bruno Fernandes from the free kick found Casemiro on the back post and United went one up. United eventually edged past Fulham 3-2, showing they could win even when the game demanded patience rather than chaos.

What Carrick has succeeded in putting together is the perfect trio of Casemiro, Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo, something Ruben Amorim never dreamed of doing. Casemiro tackles strongly as he has done all his career and can dominate in the air around the penalty area. Fernandes creates passes and sprays them into all the right places and Mainoo connects all three, giving extra presence in midfield.

With the arrival of Michael Carrick as interim coach of Manchester United, the position of whether or not midfielder Kobbie Mainoo leaves has completely changed.