Carrick: We Will Come Back Stronger

Michael Carrick hopes Manchester United's 3-0 defeat at Arsenal is just a "one-off" and insists the Reds will come back stronger after the international break.

Louis van Gaal's men must now wait two weeks to put things right in the next Barclays Premier League match, away at Everton, following a hugely disappointing day in North London.

Three goals in the opening 20 minutes at the Emirates Stadium secured a win for Arsenal on Sunday, with Carrick admitting the Reds' performance "wasn't good enough".

The players now head off for international duty, but the midfielder insists they will be determined to come back with a bang.

"We just didn’t start well enough, or quick enough, and conceded goals," he told MUTV. "When you concede goals at this level then it makes it difficult to come back. I think we improved as the game went on, but it just wasn’t good enough from us.

"We are bitterly disappointed and will probably beat ourselves up about it over the next few weeks, but we’ll come back looking at the bigger picture. It’s a setback, but we’re still up there and just need to take this one on the chin, take whatever criticism comes our way and come back stronger.

"It was certainly a bad day," he added. "But as players and coaching staff we’ll analyse it and come back better.

"I am hoping it’s a one-off, as there’s been no sign of that recently. We’ve been pretty good consistently, which is why we’re in the position in the table. We’ve had a decent start to the season. We have got plenty of time to put this right and there’s still a long way to go."

Carrick was encouraged by United's response after half-time, but says losing two goals in the opening 10 minutes was key to the Reds' downfall.

"We just gave them a bit too much space and they played well and it came off for them," he continued. "We did too many things wrong; you could go on forever talking about why things didn’t work, but we just didn’t start well enough, conceded the goals and gave ourselves too much to do.

"In the second half we came out believing that we could get one goal and that get ourselves back in the game. It was a big ask, to score three, but if [Anthony] Martial’s chance had gone in just before half-time it gives us a better chance, but it was a good save. Second half we came out and were better, but we didn’t score and the longer it went, it was pretty much game over.

"We want to bounce back and we are going to have to wait a while to do that. The last international break came after the Swansea game, so we’ve just got to go away, refresh and come back stronger again."