Confident Carrick gunning for Arsenal

EVEN during the darker moments of recent seasons, Alex Ferguson has always clung to the undeniable fact that Manchester United raise their game after the turn of the year.

The worrying news for Chelsea is that, once again, the trend appears set to continue.

Facing Aston Villa for the third time in three weeks, United contemptuously backhanded their opponents, dealing with the routine business of securing three points in 35 exhilarating first half minutes before casting their minds forwards to next weekend’s pivotal double bill that could go a long way towards determining the eventual destiny of the Premiership title.

Ferguson has singled out his side’s consistency as the key to their revival this season and this win, their 14th in the last 17 games, eloquently reinforced the manager’s view. The Scot knows, however, that with difficult journeys to Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea to come, the true test of United’s ambitions will be their ability to maintain that streak on the road.

The first of those trips comes at the Emirates Stadium to face a resurgent Arsenal who, while surely out of the title race, appear once again to carry the swagger of potential champions and would surely delight in derailing United’s efforts to claim a first title in four seasons. With Chelsea playing third-placed Liverpool at Anfield just twenty-four hours earlier, Ferguson and his players know the potential is there for them to extend their six-point lead over Jose Mourinho’s side. They will also be acutely aware that the weekend’s events could see Chelsea right back in it.

“We expect to win every game now, even the away games,” said Carrick. “We go to Arsenal next week, it is a tough game but we expect to win and if we don’t we will be disappointed. Next weekend is a big weekend. The big guns all playing and it will be interesting but it won’t decide the title. I suppose everyone will talk it up but we are just going to win the game.”

Carrick’s confidence was no doubt fuelled by the fact the midfielder registered his first goal in United colours since his £18.6 million (€28.2m) move from Tottenham. The England man has yet to win over some at Old Trafford who continue to compare Carrick’s casual appearance in the holding role with Roy Keane but the former Spurs man showed he is capable of breaking free from the shackles with a powerful 40-yard run to meet Ji-Sung Park’s return pass and place the ball beyond Thomas Sorensen from the edge of the area. “Scoring was something I wanted to get out of the way really, once you have done that you can move on and hopefully get a few more,” Carrick added.

Just sixty seconds earlier, Park had profited from a shocking clearance from Gary Cahill to also claim his first goal of the season and it was the first half performances of Carrick and Park that did much to justify the manager’s claim that his pool of players is more than equal to Mourinho’s squad.

“Carrick and Ji-Sung got a goal and that is good for them, it won’t do them any harm whatsoever,” Ferguson said. !

Cristiano Ronaldo muscled into centre stage to head home the third, his 13th league goal of the season.

Said Ferguson. “We missed a few chances but that has been the nature of us anyway,” he said. “The most important thing is we are creating and scoring goals. Missing chances isn’t a big issue for us. There are enough goal scorers throughout the team to balance out. It is an important weekend next week. The important thing is for us to do our job, this was another one off the list of games, we have 15 games to go, we maintained our lead, now we have to go to London next week and we will do our job.”

Opta Stat: United have won the last 11 meetings with Villa in a row in all competitions

Opta Stat: Aston Villa have won none of their last 11 Premiership matches.