The 16-year record that Michael Carrick's resurgent Manchester United broke in stunning Premier League win over Arsenal
AFNEWS reporter
Jan 26, 2026
The 16-year record that Michael Carrick's resurgent Manchester United broke in stunning Premier League win over Arsenal
Michael Carrick became the first manager since 2010 to achieve a very difficult feat in the Premier League. Matheus Cunha hit the late winner for Manchester United against Arsenal after Mikel Merino's 84th-minute equaliser looked to have rescued a point for Mikel Arteta's side, who now only lead Manchester City and Aston Villa by four points at the top of the table.
Michael Carrick's back-to-back victories as Manchester United manager over Arsenal and Manchester City mean he has broken a remarkable 16-year record.
Having recorded a famous victory in the Manchester derby in the first game of his interim spell at United, Carrick went one better in his next game, stunning league leaders Arsenal 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium.
And in doing so, he achieved a feat that no other Premier League manager has achieved since David Moyes in 2010 according to Opta - winning back-to-back top flight games against teams in the top two at the start of the matchday. There had been 36 previous chances to achieve the feat since Moyes' Everton recorded those two victories.
Though it took a pair of cracking strikes from Patrick Dorgu and Matheus Cunha to down the league leaders and end their 12-game unbeaten run, it was far from a smash-and-grab triumph by The Red Devils, who were under pressure for the first 30 minutes of the contest and went behind to a Lisandro Martinez own goal.
But they recovered to take the lead, then overcame Mikel Merino's 84th-minute equaliser to take victory, their first Premier League triumph at the Emirates Stadium since 2017.
And Carrick gave an interesting response to the possibility of remaining the long-term Manchester United manager rather than the interim boss until the end of the season.
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Asked if he is starting to see a long-term project, Carrick told Sky Sports: "It is not that I am starting to see it, [I have] come in here less than two weeks ago, I said we are going to make every decision for the greater good and the bigger picture for the football club.
"My job is to try to keep adding to it and not get carried away with two massive results, big performances. It is always about what's next that really matters.
"I am enjoying it, it is a fantastic position to be in, what happens next... it is what it is but at the moment I am really enjoying it and I will continue to do what I can."
On the match itself, he added: "I think it was different to last week, two very different games. I said before the game it was going to be different today and they put us under a lot of pressure in different ways.
"We never probably had as much genuine, regular threat as we did last week but I thought there were periods where we did look really dangerous and to come here and score three goals in the manner we did, going one down and coming back, then a setback and keep going, Matheus with a huge moment.
"The boys put an awful lot in today, it probably did not come as easy - it was not easy last week but the flow of the game, the momentum was with us pretty much the whole time, this one we had to dig deep, it was a massive effort, really proud."
The previous manager to mastermind successive victories over the league's top two was Moyes in February 2010, almost 6,000 days ago and during his first spell as Everton manager, before he became Sir Alex Ferguson's successor at Old Trafford.
It is even more of a coincidence that one of those victories was over Manchester United - his Toffees beat Chelsea 2-1 thanks to a Louis Saha brace, then Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Ryan Gosling and Jack Rodwell got the goals 10 days later as they downed The Red Devils 3-1 with Dimitar Berbatov scoring in reply.
In the intervening years, a Premier League side had faced top-two teams back-to-back 36 times but all had been unable to triumph in at least one of those clashes.
It took Ruben Amorim 35 Premier League games to record back-to-back wins, against Sunderland and Liverpool, and Carrick is already 29% of the way towards matching his predecessor's victory tally from last season.
The Red Devils are yet to sign anyone in the January transfer window, with the success Carrick is enjoying coming instead from his rejuvenation of discarded or misused players such as Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire.
"Michael [Carrick] has come in and he has been brilliant with us," Maguire, who was awarded player of the match, told Sky.
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"He has brought fresh energy, and the group has really galvanised. Obviously, two tough games [City and Arsenal], everyone probably thought we would come away from them with not many points, but we won both of them.
"The fans deserve it. It has been a tough couple of years for them, and results like City [last week] and today are what they deserve."
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— AFNEWS reporter