The 44-year-old has overseen a remarkable upturn since taking charge in January, collecting 19 points from seven Premier League matches. In that spell, United have earned five more points than leaders Arsenal and three more than reigning champions Manchester City, even beating both sides to underline their resurgence.

It is little surprise, then, that Carrick was recently asked whether United could still win the league. He treated the question seriously and did not dismiss the possibility outright.

However, he accepts the scale of the task. Arsenal remain 13 points clear, albeit having played a game more, while City sit eight points ahead with only 10 fixtures left in the campaign.

"Listen, you can't rule anything out in football, but we've got to be realistic and know where it's at," he said. "I think we've just got to try and keep winning games and see.

"Above us now there are two fantastic teams. There are some really good teams in and around us. We've had a good run, we're certainly not getting carried away.

"You've got to be patient but you've got to be living in the moment a little bit, certainly, take the confidence. Wherever that's going to take us, we'll just have to see. But we'll keep pushing anyway."

He added: "Of course, I'm being realistic about it. We have to win a lot of football matches for that to happen. so we'll do what we've been doing and go one at a time. We've got one more now and then we've got a little bit of a break before Villa so we'll go and give it everything on Wednesday night."

Despite the significant gap, United have propelled themselves into pole position to secure a return to the Champions League - their primary target at the start of the season. After leapfrogging Aston Villa last weekend, they are now viewed as the closest challengers to the top two.

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