IF MANCHESTER United beat Fulham convincingly, it would be more significant than beating Arsenal or Manchester City.
United were exceptional in the adrenaline-fuelled derby triumph two weeks ago and their focus was intense at Arsenal, where they ruthlessly seized on the Premier League leaders’ mishaps.
A Sunday afternoon kick-off against Fulham, with the most diplomatic set of supporters in the top flight, is not one to set the pulses racing.
Yet United managed only two three-match winning sequences under Ruben Amorim. That ramps up the importance of Fulham’s visit.
And head coach Michael Carrick insists it is as big a test as taking on the top two.
He said: “What I think is we understand that what it’s going to take, and what it has taken to get results in.
“With the respect, as I’ve said, with Marco (Silva) and Fulham as a team, I think it’s as big, if not bigger, a test than what we’ve had.
“So it’s really not a case of looking at this as any different. It’s another game in front of us.
“We’ve got to put so many things in place and carry the emotion and the intensity and everything that goes into whatever game we play and show the utmost respect to any team.
“So we’re playing at home, we’re playing against Fulham. It’s no different for me. It really can’t be any different.
“And assuming these are the type of game or anything like that. We got to face the game in front of us, play the game, however it develops.
“We might play well, we might be on top, we might have to defend, we might be up against it, we might go up, we might go down.
“They’re on a great run. They’re not far behind us in the league. They’re there for a reason. It’s a big challenge for us.”
The planned pre-match protest against the Glazer family and Sir Jim Ratcliffe is unlikely to rival the febrile atmospheres that preceded home games against Norwich City and Liverpool in 2022.
That is down to Carrick’s impact. Successive wins against the league’s best teams has transformed the mood at United, fourth heading into this weekend’s fixtures.
The receptionist who greets visitors to United’s Carrington training complex, Angela, is in a sunny mood whatever the score.
Yet last week she remarked how much happier her colleagues were around the new £50million hub in the wake of the City win.
At Arsenal, a usually pessimistic colleague even floated a possible title challenge after United fans sang ‘We’re gonna win the league’ at the Emirates Stadium.
United trail Arsenal by 12 points after 23 games. United anoraks will remember they were 12 points behind Newcastle after 23 games in January 1996. They reeled in Kevin Keegan’s side and regained the title.
With 15 games within a 16-week period starting Sunday, having just conquered the top two, a title tilt is not beyond the realms of possibility but highly improbable.
The maximum number of points United can end up with is 83. Leicester City were the last side to claim the Premier League crown with a lower points tally in 2016.
Fulham could be a defining fixture for United. It was in January last year that Amorim oversaw morale-lifting draws at Liverpool and Arsenal in successive weeks.
But in their next fixture against basement club Southampton, United needed goals in the final ten minutes to win.
Three days later, Brighton did another number on United at Old Trafford and Amorim claimed he had inherited “maybe the worst team” in United’s history.
Is Carrick confident this squad has players mentally ready to cope with Sunday’s test?
“Yeah. It’s easy to talk about it.
“Let’s be honest, it’s easy for all of us to talk about it and we kind of know what needs to be done and how we need to approach it.
“That’s the nature of the game. Unpredictable things can happen within the game.
“But certainly in terms of what I’ve seen, the reaction from the last game, coming back into the training and the focus, if anything it’s gone up even more.
“And the intensity in the training is at a very, very good level. So that’s all I can ask, to keep building and improving and taking it into the game.”
