Carrick Not Complacent

Michael Carrick insists the Reds won't rest on the laurels of victory over Liverpool, even if Sunday's win has sealed United's status as strong title favourites.

The midfielder believes the fixture list still looks difficult, telling MUTV: "We’re playing well at the moment but we’ve still got a tough run-in and it’s not going to be easy.

"We’re not getting carried away by any means but we’re happy with our position. Three or four weeks ago we were a few points behind Arsenal and aware that we needed to get points on the board fairly quickly.

"We’ve managed to do that and obviously Arsenal have slipped up a little bit and opened the door for us."

When United opened the door against Liverpool, the identity of the first scorer caught Carrick by surprise.

"It was mad to see Wes (Brown) up there, I was a bit shocked it was him when the goal went in," he laughed.

"It means a lot to Wes to score against Liverpool, being a local lad, and his goal got us up and running. We played some good football after that."

For all the good football and goalscoring opportunities created, United had to endure a long wait for the security of a second strike. As comfortable as the Reds seemed to be against the ten men of Liverpool, Michael admits a few doubts were starting to creep in as a rack of chances went begging.

"Cristiano had a great chance - just before he scored the second goal - and you think is it going to be one of those days?" confessed Carrick.

"Sometimes the longer it goes on the harder it becomes and Liverpool were just beginning to have a half-decent spell in the game, getting a few free-kicks and things."

The game can be on a knife-edge until you get that crucial second goal. Once we got that we could relax and enjoy the game a bit more and then Nani’s goal capped things off for us."