Carrick not ruling out late title run ahead of showdown in Newcastle tonight 

The turnaround at Old Trafford has been historic. After a dreadful five months under Ruben Amorim Michael Carrick has taken the reigns and revamped the squad into not just a competitive team but a team that might just have a chance to challenge for the league title.

Carrick “can’t rule out anything”

Carrick took over a Manchester United club that was in seventh place at the beginning of January. He has rattled of six wins, and a draw in his first seven matches following their weekend win over Crystal Palace. They needed to come back after going down a goal in the fourth minute, but a Bruno Fernandes penalty and a Benjamin Sesko winner in the 65th minute was enough to put the Red Devils in the top three.

No one could have imagined the revival of a club who is coming off one of their worst seasons in history, but now miraculously United aren’t just worried about a push for Champions League spots. Now their ambitions are even higher. In the lead up to their midweek match in Newcastle, Michael Carrick has refused to put the possibility of a run for the title out the window with 10 match days to go.

“You can’t rule anything out in football, but we’ve got to be realistic and know where it’s at,” Carrick said in the lead up to Wednesday’s massive match. “I think we’ve just got to try and keep winning games and see. Above us now there’s two fantastic teams. There’s some really good teams in and around us. We’ve had a good run, we’re certainly not getting carried away. Of course, I’m being realistic about it. We have to win a lot of football matches for that to happen.”

Red Devils need plenty of help

United have the first of 10 matches coming up on Wednesday, and the bad news for them is they have no more matches against clubs that are ahead of them in the table. Arsenal are currently 13 points above them in first place, but with a game in hand while Manchester City have eight more points than the Red Devils with the same amount of matches played.

It’s never good news to not be in any other title races at this stage of year, but for a United side that is coming off the season they are coming off of and with a chance to lock down Champions League spots, and potentially put their nose in the race for the title, not having extra matches outside of their league schedule may come as a blessing for Carrick´s squad.

Both City and Arsenal are in the thick of the Champions League, FA Cup and the Carabao Cup Final in which they will play each other on the 22nd of March. Both clubs have a busy month, as Arsenal will play Bayer Leverkusen twice while City take on Real Madrid in the Round of 16 in the Champions League.

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