Manchester United have been partnered with adidas since 2015 and will be until at least 2035 after the deal was renewed for another decade and £900 million ($1.24 billion) last year. But the brand’s globally famous ‘Impossible is Nothing’ slogan will never have been more relevant should the Red Devils do the unthinkable and finish 2025–26 as Premier League champions.
United slumped to 15th last season, their lowest placing in the Premier League era and the worst in more than half a century, stretching back to 1973–74 when the Red Devils were last relegated.
To go straight from that multi-generational low back to the very top of the mountain for the first time in 13 years would be a remarkable transformation in such a short space of time.
Yet the last 10 days have given United fans a glimmer of hope. It’s still faint, but it’s there.
Wins vs. Man City, Arsenal
When Michael Carrick appointed interim successor to Ruben Amorim, he knew that his first two games—Manchester City (H), Arsenal (A)—were as tough as they come.
The team hadn’t really experienced new manager bounce when Amorim was let go. For all that his tactics didn’t suit the squad from a technical standpoint, the Portuguese had remained almost universally popular, except with a handful of individuals, and it was never a question about losing the dressing room. As caretaker, Darren Fletcher didn’t deliver an immediate upturn solely by being a different voice, which can often be the case when a manager leaves a club. United drew the Scot’s Premier League debut with Burnley and lost against Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup.
It doesn’t feel as though Carrick has done anything spectacular from a tactical perspective, other than really hone in on the specific strengths of the players at his disposal. He has leaned into the United ‘DNA’ that has been the subject of much debate in recent months, asking his team to play fast, direct and with lots of natural width, harking back to the Sir Alex Ferguson years.
It has instilled a confidence and belief in the squad that was lost some time ago, and the combination of that with a more simple set of instructions was ultimately what delivered back-to-back victories over two of the very best teams in England and Europe.
If United have beaten Manchester City and Arsenal, they can, in theory, beat anyone.
Consistency is Key Moving Forward
What Carrick has to do now is find the long-term consistency that eluded Amorim, Erik ten Hag, and more or less every other United manager since Ferguson retired in 2013.
Amorim was a particularly brutal example of the struggles to string positive results together, winning back-to-back Premier League games for the first time almost a year after his appointment—Carrick has already matched that feat. But with the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool failing to build momentum, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur out of the picture completely, and even Arsenal and Manchester City far from flawless, a little will go a long way.
Carrick’s United have the opportunity. Their competitors all have other distractions and this may be the case where having solely the Premier League to play for is a blessing in disguise. It’s 15 league fixtures to go and nothing else to take the focus away from that.
After rising to the occasion so far, masterminding those performances on repeat is Carrick’s true test.
Man Utd’s Remaining Premier League Fixtures—2025–26
|
Date |
Fixture |
|---|---|
|
Feb. 1, 2026 |
Man Utd vs. Fulham |
|
Feb. 7, 2026 |
Man Utd vs. Tottenham |
|
Feb. 10, 2026 |
West Ham vs. Tottenham |
|
Feb. 23, 2026 |
Everton vs. Man Utd |
|
March 1, 2026 |
Man Utd vs. Crystal Palace |
|
March 4, 2026 |
Newcastle vs. Man Utd |
|
March 14, 2026 |
Man Utd vs. Aston Villa |
|
March 20, 2026 |
Bournemouth vs. Man Utd |
|
April 11, 2026 |
Man Utd vs. Leeds |
|
April 18, 2026 |
Chelsea vs. Man Utd |
|
April 25, 2026 |
Man Utd vs. Brentford |
|
May 2, 2026 |
Man Utd vs. Liverpool |
|
May 9, 2026 |
Sunderland vs. Man Utd |
|
May 17, 2026 |
Man Utd vs. Nottingham Forest |
|
May 24, 2026 |
Brighton vs. Man Utd |
History Says it Is Possible
The current gap between the Red Devils and leaders Arsenal is 12 points. Immediately prior to Carrick’s appointment it was 17 and so it has already considerably shrunk in under two weeks.
Closing a 12-point gap has proven to be possible in the past, while the Premier League record is 13.
United have done 12 twice before, in both 1992–93 and 1995–96. In the former, the inaugural Premier League season following the landmark breakaway from the EFL, Ferguson’s team trailed Norwich City by 12 points on Dec. 5, ultimately breezing past the Canaries in the second half of the campaign. In the latter, a 12-point gap to Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle existed at this exact stage of the season, with 23 games played and only 15 still to go.
In 1992–93 , it marked the end of a 26-year league title drought, while 1995–96 was the year that Ferguson had put faith in a group of home-grown players that would underpin success for almost two decades to follow. Both were pivotal campaigns in United’s evolving history, just as 2025–26 would be after so long without so much as mounting a title challenge.
Arsenal have completed the biggest ever title-race comeback in the Premier League era, moving up from 13 points behind United themselves to finish top of the pile in 1997–98.
Biggest Premier League Title Comebacks
|
Season |
Champions (Reeled in) |
Point Deficit |
|---|---|---|
|
1997–98 |
Arsenal (Man Utd) |
13 |
|
1992–93 |
Man Utd (Norwich) |
12 |
|
1995–96 |
Man Utd (Newcastle) |
12 |
|
1996–97 |
Man Utd (Liverpool) |
10 |
|
2002–03 |
Man Utd (Arsenal) |
10 |
|
2008–09 |
Man Utd (Liverpool) |
10 |
|
2018–19 |
Man City (Liverpool) |
10 |
Within the last decade, it has also been proven possible to win the Premier League immediately after finishing way down the league table in the season prior. Leicester City, in perhaps the greatest fairytale English football has ever seen, went from 14th to first between 2014–15 and 2015–16, while Chelsea then jumped from 10th to first between 2015–16 and 2016–17.
Patrick Dorgu’s Injury Is a Blow
This time last year, the fitness of an unknown left back signed from Lecce wouldn’t have seemed that big of a deal, but Patrick Dorgu has quickly become a crucial figure to Carrick-era United.
The Denmark international was already starting to play further forward towards the end of the Amorim era, but has made huge contributions to those wins over Manchester City and Arsenal. He offers the kind of width and directness that Carrick is specifically asking for, and is also proving himself a goal threat after scoring stunning strikes in both games. The Gareth Bale comparisons certainly aren’t without some merit if you consider the Welshman’s transformation c.2010.
To lose Dorgu to a hamstring injury and him be sidelined for potentially the 10 weeks, missing eight games in the process, is a considerable blow. United don’t have a natural replacement on that side of the pitch and so it will take some reshuffling from Carrick to find a solution to his absence.
No Dorgu, given the enormity of his recent impact, is the most tangible obstacle that could derail a potential title challenge before it gets off the ground.
