Michael Carrick will lead his Man United team into battle against Arsenal this weekend looking to build on his big derby-day win last weekend.
Carrick oversaw a fine win for the Red Devils against rivals City but will be aware that Arsenal represent a different beast entirely.
The Gunners themselves are looking to maintain their seven point gap at the summit after City beat Wolves this weekend.
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As we all know, the game with United is always one of the biggest on the calendar and historically, it’s meant a huge amount to whichever team wins.
Now, speaking ahead of facing this current Arsenal side, Michael Carrick has revealed what he really thinks of the Gunners.
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Carrick will be well aware that his toughest test as manager is coming very early in his United management career.
Having played against the Gunners plenty of times in the past, he is well placed to set his team up.
And speaking ahead of facing them as a manager, Carrick has conceded just how good the Gunners are.
“Tough game, yeah. Obviously, I think they’re a good team, you know, they’ve got so many good things. The way they play, I think, so organised and kind of a lot of facets of the game and phases of the game, they’re in a good place, to be honest,” Carrick admitted.
“And so it’s a big test for us. It’s a good challenge for us. I think the boys are in a really good place off the back of last week and training really well. I can see how much they’re on it and focused and feed off the energy.
“So it’s, yeah, we’re looking forward to it, you know, it’s a real challenge for us, but one that we’re going down there really looking to face head on.”
Michael Carrick’s record against Arsenal as a player
It’s safe to say that Carrick knows a thing or two about Arsenal.
Over his career as a player, he played against them a whopping 32 times, winning 12 and losing 11 of those clashes.
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Interestingly, among those stats we can see Carrick faced off against Mikel Arteta ten times as well, where he was dominant, winning seven and drawing two of those matches.
Carrick, of course, will want to carry that record on into management but he knows he faces a different beast in Arteta the manager.
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