Michael Carrick Confident He Will Remain in Charge of Manchester United

Michael Carrick expects to still be in charge of Manchester United for their next match.

Manchester United's poor run continued with a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, in a match in which Lisandro Martínez was sent off. The Red Devils' winless run now stands at 9 matches, the club's longest run without a victory since 1988.

Many pundits and supporters expected Carrick to be sacked after last week's defeat to Bournemouth, but the English manager remained in his post. Carrick believes he will be in charge at least for Tuesday's crucial Champions League clash with Roma.

Asked whether he would continue in the job, Carrick said: "Yes. There's a lot of emotion right now. We're a big football club and we want to win matches. Our supporters go to great lengths and pay serious money to come and watch us. You could see the lads were focused on the game in the right way, but things went against us. They went badly against us, and everything fell apart quickly. There's a big wave of emotion at the moment. We have to look forward and take with us the things that worked for us today. There were a lot of positives, especially in the first half, and we need to carry those forward."

Manchester United had been effective in the first half but failed to convert clear chances through Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo, while Matheus Cunha had a goal disallowed.

Describing the first-half display as the best they had produced in a long time, Carrick said he held no grudge against Martínez, who was sent off after picking up two yellow cards in quick succession following Morgan Rogers' opener for Chelsea: "I think we played better in the first half than we have for a long time. We were dangerous, we were fluent, we looked like a good team. With the chances we created and the spaces we found, we could have scored one, two, even three goals, but then the game slipped away from us. The second half got out of our control and that's something we have to deal with. Sometimes things go wrong during a game, and after being in such a good position in the first half you have to handle them better. In footballing terms, the two halves could hardly have been more different."

Although the defeat leaves Manchester United in danger of slipping into the Premier League relegation zone, Carrick does not see talk of a relegation battle as realistic: "Not from my point of view. We have to look ahead and keep winning matches, it's that simple. Nothing I say here right now is going to change anything. We have to move forward and win football matches, it's as clear as that."