Carrick: I couldn't ask for any more

In truth, the scoreline flattered the Blues but second-half goals by Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Chinazaekpere Dorgu sealed three points in front of an ecstatic Old Trafford crowd.

After the game, Carrick spoke with Sky Sports and MUTV to offer his thoughts, and he was quick to remain level headed but still appreciate the magnitude of the triumph.

Here is a selection of what he had to say to the official broadcasters...

IT WAS CONTROLLED

"I've had some crazy weeks in my time but, to be honest, it wasn't actually a crazy week. It felt controlled and a bit normal, to be honest. From the outside, it always looks very different to what it's like and everyone at the club has been so good. My coaching staff, backroom staff, the players have been great. It hasn't been the whirlwind it probably seems. We've had a compressed time to get the players ready for today. They've been unbelievable, this week, to cope with the information and the new people people, emotionally, to put it together in the way they did."

A PROPER UNITED DISPLAY

"I don't want to get carried away with all of the DNA kind of thing. We wanted to play well today. We wanted to put things into the game that would help us to do that, we wanted to be good defensively as a whole team. We felt that we had a threat when he had the ball and in transitions, at times, but, when we did have the ball, I felt we did look dangerous. It's an easy thing to say but I couldn't ask for any more from the boys. They gave everything. We only had three days to prepare and they took everything on board, tactically, and to be able to deal with it emotionally was exactly as we hoped for."

THE MAGIC OF OLD TRAFFORD

"I said yesterday it was a magical place and, certainly today, we all felt that. The players certainly had the emotion leaving the dressing room and to finish it like we did, it would have been lovely to finish on a high with the goal [the disallowed one by Mason Mount] but the clean sheet was vital. The energy in the stadium, for everyone to feel it, it means a lot and we are going to use that fuel to excite us and drive us on to the next one."

TACTICAL TRIUMPH

"Obviously, we had things we wanted to achieve in the game and the boys took it on but tactics are one thing and words another. You've got to put it on and make it happen, bring it live and everything today was spot on. Listen, I'm not going to say too much out of respect for Pep Guardiola, he's such an unbelievable, incredible coach and they're such a good team. So it's not for me to pick them apart publicly. I think I wanted us to play to our strengths. We needed to be compact and needed the distances as short as possible between the units and between the positions. We needed to move as a team and, a few times, it got a little bit opened up but we still looked dangerous and I thought the front line were fantastic. It was everything what we would hope for, hence getting the good result."

IN IT TOGETHER

"I had a sense in the last few days, especially before the game, how much the players desperately want to have that feeling, they want to give success and the feeling to the supporters. I genuinely felt that before the game, if anything I was more concerned that feeling could be over the top as they were so keen to do well. They managed the emotions of the game unbelievably well. I'm proud to see the team, my team moving forwards, have that feeling, it was great to see them put it all together."

THE WORK CONTINUES

"It was a very special day but I'm not getting carried away. It's one game and it's really important we don't get carried away. It needs to be a regular feeling, that level of performance needs to be consistently what we're getting. It's a fantastic result and there is an element of soaking it up and enjoying it but it's definitely not enough and never enough. If you look at the result, we had three days to work on it and we've got to keep building on that."