One league win in five: Carrick's Manchester United must beat bottom club Spurs

Michael Carrick goes into Saturday's visit of Tottenham with one Premier League win from five games. Manchester United are 12th on five points; the visitors are bottom with two points and no win.

The Guardian calls the Old Trafford game close to a necessity for Carrick. United play six times in October, and after Spurs come away trips to Leeds, Atlético Madrid, Como and Chelsea, with Bournemouth the other home fixture.

The numbers behind the slow start

United's record reads one win, two draws and two defeats, eight goals scored and eight conceded. The season opened with a defeat at Hull; the only win came against Ipswich, through a Bruno Fernandes hat-trick, and the derby was lost to a Manchester City side down to ten men after Phil Foden's red card.

According to The Guardian, United average 60% possession, have the most touches in opposition boxes and allow the fewest in their own, yet they are the only Premier League side without a clean sheet. Only Fernandes and Bryan Mbeumo have scored more than once, Matheus Cunha has one heavily deflected goal, no player has more than one assist and Marcus Rashford has no goal involvement.

Up to nine absentees

The Standard reports that Carrick could be without as many as nine first-team players. Patrick Dorgu hurt a hamstring on Denmark duty and Benjamin Sesko aggravated a shin injury with Slovenia.

"Patrick (Dorgu) came off and looks like he'll be out for a number of weeks," Carrick said. "Carlos (Baleba) is improving, has trained a lot, Amad (Diallo), Kobbie (Mainoo) and Marcus (Rashford) have done a little bit of training. Ben (Sesko) is further away with the injury he has, so he won't be ready."

Noussair Mazraoui "took a knock" and is "not quite right", in Carrick's words. Matthijs de Ligt, who has not played competitively for ten months, is still recovering from a back injury, and Tom Heaton and Karl Darlow are also reported to be carrying injuries. Baleba, a £65m signing from Brighton in August, is poised for his debut after an ankle injury.

Spurs' own problems

Tottenham spent £300m on Roberto De Zerbi's rebuild this summer, according to The Guardian, but their only two league goals came in the 3-2 defeat by Aston Villa before the international break. De Zerbi gets Micky van de Ven and Jan Paul van Hecke back after injuries with the Netherlands, The Standard reports, while Pedro Porro is still out with a hamstring problem and Xavi Simons, Wilson Odobert and Mykhailo Mudryk remain sidelined.

Carrick won 12 of his 17 games after taking interim charge in January, which is why, The Guardian says, he still has credit with the club. A home defeat to the bottom side would test it.