Carrick Backs Midfield

Michael Carrick defended his midfield colleagues and explained why their togetherness was central to Manchester United's creditable point at Arsenal.

Carrick's area of the team has drawn criticism in recent weeks following a spate of disappointing results in 2014, culminating in last Sunday’s 2-2 home draw with Fulham.

The Reds travelled to the Emirates Stadium hoping to bounce back from the weekend's woes and while a victory proved elusive, David Moyes’ men produced a solid team display that almost completed a double over Arsene Wenger’s Gunners.

Speaking to MUTV after the final whistle, Carrick praised his team-mates and explained why they are unperturbed by their critics. “We get stick all the time anyway but we're used to it. I thought we did a good job - not just us in midfield but as a unit, really.

“From the front, Robin [van Persie] and Wayne [Rooney] took up good positions and helped us out, while we helped the defenders out from midfield. We limited their space around the box and they didn't create many chances.

"You could see towards the end their fans were getting frustrated and that's when I thought that maybe we might nick a goal and make it a fantastic night."

Expanding on a similar point, Carrick continued: “We are happy enough, but with the couple of opportunities that we had, I feel that we might have left with a goal. But credit to the goalkeeper, he made a couple of good saves from Robin.

“The performance was good. I thought we looked really strong as a team and good defensively considering the attacking options that Arsenal have. We can be pleased with our general performance as a team but it would have been nice to have pinched it."

United were unfortunate not to take all three points from the Emirates, having gone close to scoring a late winner in the 79th minute when Van Persie’s header was palmed onto the crossbar by Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

“It was a terrific ball from Wazza and to be fair to Robin he headed it on target and the goalkeeper made a great save,” Michael explained. “Any other time and that goes in. In general, we can be happy with the way it's gone. We hoped for a little bit better, we'd hoped for a win. But it shows we're not such a bad team - we just need to get back to playing like that and get the wins.”