Man United stuns Man City 2-0 in Michael Carrick's first game in charge

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester United's latest reboot is off to a flying start.

In his first game in charge, Michael Carrick saw his team pull off a stunning 2-0 win against Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday to lift the gloom hanging over Old Trafford.

“It’s a great start, there’s no getting away from that,” Carrick said after goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu sealed victory in the 198th Manchester derby.

The job now is to keep the good times going.

“That’s the challenge ultimately, and I think it needs to be a version of normal,” said Carrick, who was appointed head coach this week.

The former United midfielder has only signed a contract until the end of the season and has 17 games to convince the club's hierarchy to give him the job on a permanent basis after Ruben Amorim became the sixth permanent manager or head coach to be dismissed since club great Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.

He could not have made a better first impression with a dominant performance against all-conquering City manager Pep Guardiola, who could do nothing but congratulate his opponent after the game.

“The better team won. There’s nothing more to say,” Guardiola said. “When a team is better you have to accept it. They had an energy we didn’t have. Congratulations.”

Victory had United fans singing in full voice inside Old Trafford and drowning out their fierce cross-city rivals.

“The supporters were incredible and I said yesterday that this could be a magical place,” Carrick said. “To get that feeling is exactly what we want. Hopefully it’s just the start and something that we need to build on.”

The win could have been even more emphatic, with United twice hitting the frame of the goal, forcing a string of saves from City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and having three goals ruled out for offside.

Not only did victory give United local bragging rights and boost its chances of Champions League qualification, but it also delivered another blow to City's title challenge. Defeat extended City's recent winless run in the league to four games.

United dominated the chances before and after halftime.

Harry Maguire headed against the bar inside three minutes and United saw two goals chalked off by VAR for offside before the break.

In the second half Donnarumma denied Amad Diallo, Casemiro and Mbeumo before the deadlock was finally broken in the 65th minute.

It came from another swift United attack with Bruno Fernandes leading the breakaway after a City free kick came to nothing.

Racing into the City half Fernandes slipped a pass into the run of Mbeumo and the Cameroon forward unleashed a first-time left footed shot low into the far corner.

Old Trafford erupted with chants of “United!”

It was the least Carrick’s team deserved after a performance full of attacking intent.

Dorgu doubled the lead in the 76th, converting from close range after beating Rico Lewis to substitute Matheus Cunha’s cross.

Amad then hit the post as United looked to press the advantage and there was still time for another substitute, Mason Mount, to find the back of the net with his first touch in the 89th, only for it to be deemed offside.

By that point, it mattered little. The day belonged to United and Carrick, who had a beaming smile on his face as he congratulated his players after the final whistle.

Up in the stands, watching on was managerial great Alex Ferguson, whose smile was as broad as anyone's inside Old Trafford.

James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Manchester City's Erling Haaland reacts during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester, England, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Manchester United's head coach Michael Carrick, centre, arrives ahead of the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester, England, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Manchester City's head coach Pep Guardiola walks during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester, England, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Manchester United's Bryan Mbeumo, left, celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester, England, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Manchester United's head coach Michael Carrick celebrates during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester, England, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States for talks Saturday on a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the nearly 4-year-old war as Russian attacks again took aim at Ukraine's power grid, cutting electricity and heating in freezing temperatures.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said he arrived in the U.S. to discuss “the details of the peace agreement.”

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Budanov said he, together with Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia, would meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.

Also on Telegram, Zelenskyy said Saturday that the principal task for the Ukrainian delegation was to convey how ongoing Russian strikes are undermining diplomacy.

The strikes, he said, are “constantly worsening even the small opportunities for dialogue that existed. The American side must understand this.”

Zelenskyy's latest comments came after he said Friday that the delegation would try to finalize with U.S. officials documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to postwar security guarantees and economic recovery.

If American officials approve the proposals, the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy said at a Kyiv news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel. Trump plans to be in Davos, according to organizers.

Russia would still need to be consulted on the proposals.

Russia struck energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Odesa regions overnight into Saturday, the Ministry of Energy said. More than 20 settlements in the Kyiv region were left without power following the attacks, the ministry wrote on its official Telegram channel.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a Russian attack on a critical infrastructure facility in the city's industrial district Saturday could seriously affect power and heating in Ukraine's second-largest city. Three people were wounded in the attack.

“We’re talking about serious strikes on the system that keeps the city warm and lit,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that the system is ”constantly operating at its limits." Each new strike, he said, means “maintaining a stable supply will become even more difficult, and recovery will be longer and harder.”

Zelenskyy said Sunday he held a special energy coordination meeting, noting that the most difficult situations with regard to the energy supply were in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, and the surrounding regions.

He said Ukraine needed to ramp up the importation of electricity and the acquisition of additional equipment from partners.

Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, throughout the war. It aims to weaken the Ukrainian will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponizing winter.”

Ukraine’s new energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Friday that Russia had conducted 612 attacks on energy targets over last year. That barrage has intensified in recent months as nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 18 degrees Celsius (zero Fahrenheit).

Ukraine has introduced emergency measures, including temporarily easing curfew restrictions to allow people to go whenever they need to public heating centers set up by the authorities, Shmyhal said. He said hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure remain the top priority for electricity and heat supplies.

Officials have instructed state energy companies Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz and Ukroboronprom to urgently purchase imported electricity covering at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Shmyhal.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, shakes hands with Czech Republic's President Petr Pavel during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

Snow covered, damaged Russian military vehicles are on display in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)