Michael Carrick praised Manchester United's "fantastic" display as they beat Manchester City 2-0 in the derby, with goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu. The interim coach, appointed until the end of the season, called for consistency across his remaining 16 games in charge.
Carrick said the emotional and tactical demands of the match made the victory especially pleasing, but stressed that such standards must become "a version of normal". He added: "That's the challenge ultimately – it needs to be a version of normal, certainly we're not going to have games with the emotion and the feeling of everything that today brought."
United next travel to Arsenal on Sunday week, and Carrick acknowledged the need to build on the result. "Consistency is the key to any success," he said. "We've got to find a way of doing that. Big one next week, another tough one, but on the back of today we've got a good foundation to build on."
City are winless in their opening four league games of the year, drawing the other three. Pep Guardiola conceded his side were "not ready" based on results, though he remained satisfied with performances. "Today was not enough, but the previous games, we were enough," he said.
Guardiola also believed Diogo Dalot should have been sent off for stamping on Jérémy Doku in the 10th minute, calling it "a red card", but declined to use that as an excuse. On Marc Guéhi's projected move from Crystal Palace, he said "apparently it's close" but that he had received no confirmation from club executives.
