Michael Carrick and Bruno Fernandes have reportedly put their differences aside after discussions aimed at clearing the air following Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth.

The fallout from that result had been severe. Fernandes had already gone public with a striking criticism of the club’s tactical approach after a damaging night in northern Italy, while Lisandro Martínez had earlier taken aim at director of football Jason Wilcox. With United in a difficult moment, Sunday’s loss to Bournemouth had looked likely to bring Carrick’s spell to an end.

Instead, the club have opted to keep him in place for the Premier League meeting with Chelsea this Saturday.

According to The Guardian, that decision has been followed by a reconciliation between Carrick and Fernandes after talks at the club’s training ground on Tuesday. The Portugal international is said to have given “assurances that he is fully committed and intent on trying to turn the team’s season around,” before a full squad meeting in which his teammates “made the same vow.”

That should give the impression of a clean slate, but United’s problems are far from settled. Fernandes is expected to start against Chelsea as he attempts to end a poor spell of form. So far this season, he has managed only four goals and one assist, all of them arriving in home matches against Ipswich Town and Sabah FK.

United’s wider picture remains bleak. They sit 16th in the Premier League and 21st in the Champions League, and they have already gone out of the Carabao Cup after a shock collapse against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Pressure is increasing, and the boos after the Bournemouth defeat were aimed at the players rather than Carrick. Another setback against Chelsea could put the current regime in real danger.

Carrick will hope the latest round of soul-searching leads to a stronger response, and there is at least some indication that part of the dressing room remains aligned with him. “The feeling is that we all want to put it right. Players, staff, everyone,” one unnamed United player recently told BBC Sport.

Mikel Arteta has been left juggling a growing list of fitness worries ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Liverpool, with Declan Rice among those under an injury cloud. The midfielder was forced off against Everton last weekend after, in Arteta’s words, he finished with “a problem”, leaving his availability for Sunday’s clash at Anfield uncertain.

Rice is not the only concern. Arteta admitted after Arsenal’s Carabao Cup exit that “Riccardo was out, Noni was out with an ankle and Declan Rice finished with a problem the other day,” underscoring the scale of the issue facing his side.

Some absences, though, are already clearer. Bukayo Saka has joined William Saliba on the list of long-term injuries after damaging his left quad in the Champions League draw with Bayern Munich. Saka is expected to miss at least six weeks and will not be back before the start of December at the earliest.

Saliba’s situation remains less defined. The defender has not played this season since surgery on a persistent back problem that became too much for him at this summer’s World Cup. Arteta has described the signs in his recovery as “very, very positive”, but he has not offered a return date, with the end of November mentioned only as a loose target.

There is also uncertainty around Christos Tzolis. The summer signing picked up a thigh problem while on international duty with Greece in the fall and was ruled out for around three weeks. He may yet have a role on Sunday, but his status remains unresolved.

Elsewhere, Max Dowman will not be able to win Arteta over through the FA, although Arsenal could still try to secure the teenager’s availability by appealing his red card against Fleetwood. The 16-year-old was dismissed for kicking out at Harrison Neal, with the force described as minimal but still enough for a straight red. With no VAR at this stage of the Carabao Cup, Michael Salisbury’s on-field call stood at the time. Dowman was found guilty of violent conduct, which the FA Handbook describes as “when a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball.”

Manchester United’s reported interest in Eddie Howe would not come cheaply. If the club want to move for the former Newcastle United boss, they would first need to pay around $4 million (£3 million) simply to prise him away from the terms of his agreement on Tyneside.

United have told the media, rather than issued a public statement, that Michael Carrick will remain in charge until Saturday’s Premier League match with Chelsea. What comes next is still unclear, and the thinking behind that shift has not been fully explained.

Money is a central part of the issue. Howe is understood to be among the leading candidates for the increasingly unsettled Old Trafford job and could, in theory, be available after leaving Newcastle over the summer. But that departure reportedly triggered compensation of about $4 million, as first revealed by The Guardian.

United would then also need to meet the salary expectations of Howe and his long-serving assistant Jason Tindall, described by The Athletic as “not insignificant in the eyes of United.” Carrick would also require compensation, although United limited that risk by giving the former interim manager a two-year contract rather than the three-year terms usually handed to his predecessors.

Even combined, the overall bill would still likely sit below eight figures. In the wider world of modern football, that is not an extraordinary sum. Yet in United’s current climate, it is being treated as meaningful. The club has spent the past year under intense financial pressure, with minority co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe saying in March 2025 that “the club runs out of money at Christmas” without drastic cost-cutting.

United later announced record revenues above $900 million and an operating profit of $30 million, despite no European football. Still, the club’s debt remains a major drag. Malcolm Glazer’s 2005 leveraged buyout loaded United with borrowing, and in 2025-26 alone the club spent $92.5 million, pushing total expenditure beyond $1.3 billion across two decades.

Chief executive Omar Berrada praised “the underlying strength of our business” while adding: “We will continue to take a disciplined approach to ensure our finances remain sustainable.” That discipline has already shown up in the transfer market, and now appears to extend to coaching decisions as well.