Michael Carrick has urged his Manchester United teammates to stay grounded after their 2-0 defeat of Portsmouth.

Chelsea's failure to beat Everton at Stamford Bridge on the same night, leaves Liverpool - who drew 4-4 with Arsenal on Tuesday - as United's only realistic title rivals. And goals from Wayne Rooney in the ninth minute and substitute Carrick's 73^rd minute strike mean Sir Alex Ferguson's men are now three points clear of their north-west rivals, with a game in hand.

"Liverpool's draw was a big boost and we're in a decent position now," the midfielder told United's official television channel.

"Hopefully we can keep the momentum going between now and the end of the season and put the league to bed as quickly as we can.

"There are big games coming up thick and fast and we need to be at our best in all of them."

Despite his caution, Carrick was quick to reveal that he was more than happy with the way United performed at Old Trafford.

"We played some great stuff at times in the first half and some of the link-up play was brilliant," he said.

We had a number of chances to go further ahead and that would have put the game to bed. So it was a bit frustrating in that sense. We still played well and from a personal point of view it's always nice to score. It was a quite an important goal at that point so I was pleased to get it."

United's march toward an 18^th domestic crown continues on Saturday when they play host to Tottenham, whilst Liverpool travel to play Hull City.