Carrick keen to avoid slip

Michael Carrick believes Manchester United can not afford any slip ups this season if they are to regain their Premier League crown, starting with Newcastle (14/1 to beat United) on Monday night.

United narrowly lost out in the title race to Chelsea last season, the fight to be kings of England going down until the last day of the campaign.

Despite pushing the Blues all the way in the last campaign, too many slips up against the likes of Fulham, Burnley and Aston Villa cost them what would have been a fourth straight league title.

Having seen Chelsea make no mistakes against West Brom (10/11) in their opening game on Saturday Carrick is eager for United to do the same against Newcastle.

"There isn't much margin for error," said the England international.

"Last season was a bit of a freak in terms of how many games both us and Chelsea lost and how many points were dropped.

"Competition is pretty fierce again now."

United will be missing three familiar faces for the visit of the Toon with Rio Ferdinand, Anderson and Owen Hargreaves definitely out.

Likewise Newcastle will be missing a few first team players with Leon Best, Danny Simpson, Dan Gosling and Steven Taylor all unavailable.