Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick insists their string of 1-0 victories is the mark of champions.

Carrick insisted: "I'll always take a 1-0 win. We had a spell last season where we won five or six games on the spin 1-0 and they all count. It's not all about the nice four or five-nil wins.

"This is how you achieve success and hopefully this is giving us the momentum we need and giving us something to build on in the New Year. When things are tough it's important just to win.

"Every game is big now and every point means so much. With the number of chances we created against Middlesbrough we should have been well ahead and won more comfortably, but I'd rather have missed chances than created no chances at all. 'We have the players to put them away and I'm sure the goals will start flying in for us."