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Carrick: Arsenal win vital after Chelsea fortune

Manchester United are on a charge, believes Michael Carrick © PA Photos

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Michael Carrick has called on his Manchester United team-mates to go on and beat Arsenal at the weekend after defeating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

United picked up their first win at Stamford Bridge in ten years at the weekend, in a controversial contest that saw two Blues players sent off. However, Carrick chose to overlook the disputed elements of the match - not least Javier Hernandez's dubious match-winner - noting instead that it was vital that United continued to beat their rivals.

Sir Alex Ferguson's side won just one of their trips to rivals Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea last season, a record that contributed to their eventual runner-up finish in the Premier League table.

But, having also beaten Liverpool at Anfield already this season, Carrick believes going on to beat Arsenal at Old Trafford this weekend will give the club a real platform to challenge strongly for the title as the campaign develops.

"Especially against your rivals - the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal - it's important you take points off them," Carrick said, according to the Mirror. "That's why it was important to win at Chelsea, and next week is just as important.

"Chelsea is 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 reason.

"Plus the fact that if we had lost 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."

When asked about some of the controversial decisions that dominated United's 3-2 win in west London, the midfielder noted that his team-mates had been on the receiving end of some awful luck at Stamford Bridge in recent seasons, and were perhaps overdue some good fortune at the venue.

"Over the last three or four years we've had some really great performances here and not come away with what we deserved, so it was sweet to get the three points," Carrick said. "We've really played some great stuff and the performances have been spot on, so to come away with no wins has been disappointing.

"We've had some decisions not go our way and it's been tough for us here, but maybe that's turned around for us.

"We'll take what we get."

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