Overdue Win Delights Carrick

Having seen a string of impressive performances go unrewarded at Stamford Bridge in recent seasons, Michael Carrick feels United's thrilling victory at Chelsea was long overdue.

Carrick: "It's a huge three points, Not winning here for a long time against our biggest rivals, we wanted to put that right and we wanted to win for that.

"Plus the fact that if we had lost today we would've been well adrift. I know there's a long way to go, but it wouldn't have been a good position for us to be in. So for those two reasons it was a big result.

"Over the last three or four years we've had some really great performances here and not come away with what we deserved, so today it was sweet to get the three points.

"We've really played some great stuff and the performances have been spot on, so to come away with no wins has been disappointing and we felt the next win was close. We have had some decisions not go our way and it's been tough for us here, but maybe that turned around for us today. We'll take what we get!"

"Especially against your rivals – the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea, Arsenal next week – it's important you take points off them," said the midfielder.

"That's why it was important and next week is just as important. It's a good start to the season. We've obviously had a couple of defeats but we've bounced back and we're still in a good position, so we can be happy."