You blow £400M on players & what do you find? Golden oldie Carrick’s your star man!

ON current form, in the battle to rule Manchester, Jose Mourinho looks like a man on the march while Pep Guardiola is only shuffling.

I have been far more impressed with Manchester United over the last six weeks than with City, who have stalled after such an impressive start in the Premier League.

But it’s strange that after spending £400million in two and a half years under Louis van Gaal and Mourinho, United’s most important player has turned out to be a 35-year-old midfielder who was on the books all along.

The Special One finally looks like he is close to knowing his best side – and Michael Carrick must be the first name on the teamsheet.

The stats don’t lie. United’s record with Carrick in the team this season is remarkable: 12 appearances, 10 wins, two draws. In 13 games without him, they have won only four.

With Carrick (right, signing for Sir Alex Ferguson 10 years ago) holding the fort, Paul Pogba is beginning to look like a player no longer weighed down by his £90m price tag and Ander Herrera is playing his best football.

Up front, maybe there is not a lot of pace with Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juan Mata, but with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial in the wings, United have frightening options.

Add in Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was looking the part before he got injured, and Phil Jones, who has suddenly looked like the confident, assertive player Fergie signed five years ago, and Mourinho is heading in the right direction. Yes, Marcos Rojo was lucky to escape a red card for a two-footed lunge at Crystal Palace – it doesn’t matter that he didn’t actually catch Wilfried Zaha, it was a potentially dangerous challenge – and their first goal should have been disallowed, but United deserved to win. They did what Mourinho used to do so well at Chelsea – they found a way to win, they managed to grind out a result. I tipped United to win the title back in August. Sadly that is going to be beyond them because the 13-point gap to Chelsea at the top is too much to make up but, as I also said in this column last week, I think the worst is over for Mourinho at Old Trafford now. United have been playing well and they deserve more points than they have collected – they were the better side in all six games they have drawn of the last 10. Of all the top-four contenders, they look most capable of stringing together a run of six or seven wins. United may not win the title but I still think they will finish above City.