Michael Carrick silences growing doubters as Man Utd close in on Champions League

It took Leeds’ first home defeat since 1981 for the real groans to begin.

Calmness, previously seen as a value, has become negative. Inaction was seen as conservative. The question has been asked all week: Is Carrick ready for the job?

There was nothing aesthetically pleasing about this final victory.

But style was secondary, given that among post-Sir Alex Ferguson bosses only Ole Gunnar Solskjaer experienced the feeling of winning at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea may have hit the target three times. They may have carried a more coherent threat. But it was Carrick’s team that achieved success.

“It was a game played to get results,” he said. “And we managed to find it.”

Yet there was more. Carrick was coping with the difficulties of losing the three centre-backs he knew he would be missing – Matthijs de Ligt through injury and Lisandro Martinez and Harry Maguire through suspension – as well as his fourth player, Leny Yoro, to injury on the training ground.

This happened so late in the week that his chosen duo, Noussair Mazraoui and Ayden Heaven, could only be prepared with brief reviews.

“I like to see players improve in moments like this,” Carrick said.

Heaven, 19, had not started a match under Carrick; First Ruben Amorim and then his replacement Darren Fletcher gave him a chance.

“Ayden hasn’t played much football lately and coming into this environment is not something to be taken lightly,” Carrick said.

“We always say the same things to young players. Sometimes they look at you like ‘yes, it’s a good thing’ but in terms of training every day, looking after yourself and being ready, ‘because you never know when that chance will come’, he probably wouldn’t have thought that chance would come at that moment.”

“But he was there, he was prepared, and he pulled it off spectacularly.”