Red October: Why the next three weeks could define Michael Carrick’s Manchester United future

However, while the eyes of the world were on the blue half of Manchester during the past fortnight attention will shift back to Carrick when the Premier League returns tomorrow.

Having picked up just one win and a paltry five points from their first five games of the season there are already critics queuing up to say United made a mistake by making Carrick their permanent manager. It was also at this time two years ago that Erik ten Hag was sacked and around this time last year that major doubts began to arise about Ruben Amorim’s suitability for the job.