How Manchester United 'unravelled' against Chelsea in Premier League despite 'best' half of season at Stamford Bridge

Michael Carrick said that he expects to stay in charge of Manchester United, without a win in nine games, after his team's performance "unravelled" in 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge which saw Lisandro Martinez sent off.

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The defeat left the 17th-placed club in danger of dropping into the Premier League's relegation zone.

Carrick's side created a number of first-half chances - one of them fell to recalled captain Bruno Fernandes - and they could have led at the break, but Morgan Rogers put Chelsea ahead early in the second half with a superb individual goal after United lost possession in midfield.

And any hopes of a comeback for the visitors were seemingly ended when Martinez was sent off for a second bookable offence after jumping into Wesley Fofana in the box.

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TNT Sports co-commentator Ally McCoist described the challenge as "unacceptable, absolutely crazy", and Cole Palmer scored the resulting penalty to put the game beyond United.

"I have not looked at it to be honest," Carrick told TNT Sports in response to a question about Martinez's challenge on Fofana. "I have not seen it."

Asked if he felt let down by Martinez, Carrick said: "No."

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On the red card, Carrick added: "It has a major importance on the game. A huge moment. I think that is pretty obvious, really."

Carrick went over to applaud the travelling fans - who were singing his name - at the final whistle.

"There is a lot of emotion, we're a great football club, and we want to win football matches," said Carrick. "The supporters come, make a lot of effort, pay a lot of money to watch us play. You can see from today, the boys had the game in the right place, and things have gone against us.

"Things have gone against us, and gone against us in a big way. Unravelled quickly. A lot of emotion right now.

"We have got to move forward, and take the things that worked for us today. A lot of the good things, especially in the first half, and use that moving forward."

Carrick had recalled Fernandes to the starting XI following his criticism of the team's tactics in last week's UEFA Champions League defeat to Como.

Asked about Fernandes, Carrick said: "I was happy with the team [in the] first half. The discipline, the role, the quality of the football were all there."

United take on AS Roma in a Champions League fixture at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.

Asked if he thought that he would still be in charge, Carrick said: "Yes."

Man Utd's approach '10 times better', says Hargreaves

TNT Sports pundit Owen Hargreaves also believes that Carrick will still be in charge for the Roma game, but he added that results alone will ultimately decide his fate.

The former United midfielder said: "Yeah, I think he will [still be in charge].

"Another difficult game. That was a difficult game today at Stamford Bridge. I thought, first half, they played terrific. They just didn't take their chances.

"Look at the fixtures coming up, they're all difficult. Every single game is a difficult game.

"I thought, performance-wise, [in] the first half, that's probably the best I've seen United play all season."

Asked if that was enough to keep Carrick in a job, he added: "This game is about results, end of. Even for the teams lower down. At the top, even more so - Chelsea, Man United.

"They need to get results, and they're not getting them. But I thought the way they approached the game was 10 times better than what I've seen in a lot of the performances.

"The problem is when they concede, they tend to go down. That's why it's so important that they get that first goal."

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