Could Manchester United do the impossible...

Manchester United have improbably become the best side in the Premier League under the erudite tutelage of Michael Carrick.
United were in very real danger of missing out on not only Champions League football but European competition altogether for the second straight year as Ruben Amorim's reign of terror lurched from one catastrophe to another.
Not only has Carrick dragged us right back into the mix, we are currently the form side in England and have overtaken an Aston Villa side that sat eleven points clear of us five weeks ago.
United occupy the dizzy heights of third place for the first time in nearly two years. Not only that, but we remain an interested party in the scrap for honours at the very top of the table. Eight points behind second placed City and thirteen off pacesetters Arsenal (with a game in hand)... let's just say stranger things have happened. 

United remain a very outside bet for the unlikeliest of Indian summers, but the rarefied air of the league's summit is certainly a lot closer than it has been for years. Messrs Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola might be starting to squirm uncomfortably at the sight of Carrick's rampaging Reds juggernaut careering into their rearview mirrors. 

Manchester United have won the Premier League from similar positions before, most notably in 1996.  Of course it remains unlikely and we would need a (very) improbable sequence of results to fall into place for it to happen. But the fact we're in the conversation at all and there's even a 1% chance of Premier League glory says it all. The fact I even have the tiniest, wildest sliver of belief we could yet pull this off speaks volumes as to Carrick's ever-growing body of work at Old Trafford. 

We would probably need to go the rest of this campaign unbeaten, winning every game, whilst hoping the lot from across town and down in north London do a Devon Loch (go look it up, you young'uns). But you never know what can happen in this crazy game we call football and why shouldn't we be allowed to dream, however fantastical it might seem?

If United win each of their last ten games, that would give us 81 points, which is only a few points shy of winning a title in most seasons (and the same as Leicester's total the year they won it). That tally would be our joint-highest since 2013 (Mourinho finished second with 81 in 2017-18). The maximum Arsenal can get is 91 (assuming they too, win all nine fixtures). City can finish on 89 with a 100% record. The Gunners only need to lose two and draw three, and City draw four and lose three, for United to finish top of the pile

Let's apply the following results (assuming United win all ten games):
- Brighton 1-1 Arsenal; City 3-0 Forest
- Arsenal 2-0 Everton, West Ham 1-1 City
-  City 2-3 Palace

- Arsenal 1-0 AFC Bournemouth, Chelsea 2-0 City
- City 0-0 Arsenal
- Arsenal 1-1 Newcastle, Burnley 1-2 City
- Arsenal 2-1 Fulham, Everton 0-1 City
- City 0-1 Brentford, West Ham 2-0 Arsenal
- AFC Bournemouth 2-2 City, Arsenal 1-0 Burnley
- Palace 1-0 Arsenal, City 1-1 Villa 

That would make the final standings: 1. United (81), 2. Arsenal (79) and 3. City (72). Easy peasy, right? 

So whilst it seems likely we have left our red surge a little too late, I haven't given up until it's a mathematical impossibility. I grew up on a diet of this club redefining logic and rewriting history so 

all the time we're in the picture, Arsenal and City will be glancing nervously over their shoulders. Call me deluded if you wish but it doesn't cost anything to let your imagination run a little wild.. 

                                     

Football fans are fickle creatures: European qualification (ideally the Champions League) was the definitive aim before the season started. We are on the verge of just that and third would be a fantastic achievement but you always want more and a strong string of results can see fans get carried away. 

All this begs the question: where would we be if Carrick replaced Amorim even a month earlier? It is surely the biggest 'what if' in United's recent history: had Amorim been sacked after Bilbao, or even in the wake of that rain-soaked nadir at Grimsby in September, what would have happened? Of course we will never know the answer now but how, with the benefit of hindsight, I wish INEOS had acted sooner.

Six wins and a draw from his seven games in charge means it's seven and two overall for Carrick if you consider his first stint in charge. Following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's dismissal in 2021, Carrick drew with Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea and overcame Arteta's Arsenal. 

That equals the joint-best return from nine games as a manager from anyone in the history of the Premier League. 

United and Carrick just need to keep this going and aim for the stars. As proud New Zealander Marton Csokas once said in his role of Charles Kingsleigh: "Gentlemen, the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe its possible."