Michael Carrick has praised the patience shown by Henrikh Mkhitaryan after the Armenian international continued his run of form with the match-winner against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford.
United ended a run of three Premier League draws in a cagey 1-0 win over Spurs with Mkhitaryan’s rasping first-half effort, his first goal in the Premier League, ultimately the difference between the sides.
The summer signing from Borussia Dortmund struggled to make an early impression on Jose Mourinho, but has made his mark in recent weeks, scoring his first goal for the club in the Europa League win over Zorya Luhansk mid-week.
Fellow midfielder has been impressed by the resilience of his team-mate, who was carried off on a stretcher late on after going down clutching his ankle following a collision with Danny Rose to put a dampener on United's afternoon.
"He's been fantastic,” he told Sky Sports.
“He's such a quality player, he's got so many attributes. He's so clever and so talented and he's such a nice lad, his attitude is top class.
"He's bided his time and I just hope his injury's not too bad."
Speaking after the match, Morinho played down fears of a possible long-term injury for .
“We don't think it's a serious injury,” he said. “We don't think maybe Henrikh can play for a week. I was afraid it was serious but looks like it's not.
“Maximum a couple of weeks. It doesn't look like something that is very dangerous or difficult.”
After some disappointing results of late, it was a nervy finish for the Red Devils, something Carrick feels was understandable.
"I think you can understand that, the way the results have gone of late for us, but in some ways it wasn't our best or prettiest performance we've had in recent weeks but as a team we really dug in,” he said.
"We showed a lot of character, created a lot of chances, looked dangerous and all-in-all it was a good performance - we can take a lot from that."
Mourinho too was pleased with the three points, but feels they could have killed the game earlier.
"We played very well again, against a very good team - so more difficult,” he said.
"I think we don't deserve to spend the last 10-15 minutes with our heart in our hands because we did enough to score a second goal and to kill the game.”
