Carrick Happy Taking Turns

The close nature of this season's Premier League title race, allied to the staggering of fixtures for TV coverage, means pole position could change hands with dizzying regularity over the coming weeks.

Victory over Fulham allowed United to end the weekend in top spot, having slipped to third after Saturday victories for Chelsea and Arsenal, but Michael Carrick insists the Reds' players shrug off the psychological setback of dropping down the table without playing.

"It's not really too much of a factor," the midfielder told MUTV. "It's nice before the game if you see them drop points, but it really doesn't affect us once we're at the ground and we go out on the pitch. You get into game mode and focus on winning.

"If you apply too much pressure too early then you start doing things that maybe you shouldn't. We just believe in ourselves. The confidence and belief's there at the moment that we're scoring good goals and scoring plenty of them. Hopefully that maintains through this part of the season."

With just two points separating all three teams in the hunt for the title, Carrick admits he fully expects a captivating dash for the line from all the protaganists - although he is targeting the consistency that can take United to a record-breaking fourth successive title.

"It is very tight," he conceded. "I'm sure it's going to go down to the wire. There are eight games to go and it's just really about us winning as many as we can, and hopefully that'll be enough."