Michael Carrick’s second spell in temporary charge has reshaped the Premier League mini-table for Manchester United. Since his re-appointment the club have played six league matches, picking up 16 points from five wins and one draw, with a goal difference of plus seven. That return places United top of the list compiled for this period.<\/p>\n
The run has included hard-fought results. United ran into difficulties in two recent matches, at West Ham United and against Everton, with Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s strikes bailing them out on both occasions. The Slovenian\u2019s completion of a rapid counter-attack at the Hill Dickinson Stadium secured another narrow success and took Carrick to five victories from his first six Premier League games back at the helm.<\/p>\n
No team has accumulated more points than United since Carrick took charge. Liam Rosenior\u2019s Chelsea and Bournemouth remain the only other unbeaten sides in the span covered by the mini-table, and Chelsea sit two points behind United on 14. Manchester City have 13 points from six matches, Arsenal have played one more game and sit with 12 points from seven matches.<\/p>\n
Those figures leave United with a three-point cushion over the Blues and Liverpool in the race to qualify for Champions League football next season. Aston Villa are also noted among the group the Red Devils have in their sights, with the Villans described as having been beset by midfield injuries as of late.<\/p>\n
Manchester City have responded in recent weeks, enjoying a five-game unbeaten run since their defeat to United in the derby in Carrick\u2019s first game back. Arsenal, affected by a rearranged fixture with Wolverhampton Wanderers, have won three of their previous seven and ceded ground as a consequence.<\/p>\n
The compact table since Carrick returned highlights United\u2019s resurgence, the importance of \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s finishes and a period of league form that has altered the early-season landscape for the clubs involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since Carrick’s return United have 16 points from six games, the best record in this period for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,172],"tags":[1162,317,1047],"class_list":["post-7088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-benjamin-sesko","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}