It carried shades of Ruud Gullit dropping Alan Shearer for Newcastle United against Sunderland in August 1999. Newcastle led 1-0 at half-time. Then Shearer was introduced at 1-1. Then Sunderland won 2-1. Gullit departed the club after that Tyne–Wear derby defeat at St James’ Park.

Michael Carrick may not last much longer at Manchester United either now that he has produced his own famous axeing. One difference between Shearer and Bruno Fernandes is that the latter did not appear at all in their 3-0 loss to Bournemouth at Old Trafford - an unused substitute to the end.

United have Chelsea next, and those at Stamford Bridge are used to facing a United caretaker in his first league game in charge. Carrick in 2021: a 1-1 draw. Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2024: another 1-1 draw. Darren Fletcher in 2026? Quite possibly. All that remains is the picture of the corner flag popping up on United’s social media feed to confirm Carrick’s departure.

Yet in what was potentially his last act as United manager, Carrick took a stand. He refused to placate Fernandes, who is a fabulous footballer, if also the master of moaning. His ego may be dented for being made an example of, but in truth, this was about more than the Portuguese and his hissy fits.

His disobedience as club captain afforded Carrick the opportunity to send the message that the lunatics have been running the asylum for too long. It is a team that have chewed and spewed too many managers.

Fernandes publicly criticised his coaches’ tactics after he was substituted during their 4-1 Champions League loss at Como. He could have been dropped for poor performances sooner, but his outburst forced the issue, and he was deservedly punished for his midweek act of mutiny.

It was a risk by Carrick, and one which did not deliver him the win he would have hoped for. He is not the first, nor will he be the last, manager to potentially use his dying breath to send such a message, however.

One of the candidates to replace him, Antonio Conte, did so at Tottenham Hotspur. His speech after their 3-3 draw at Southampton was stunning. He essentially called on the club to end its excuse culture. He went down swinging. Conte was gone a week later.

So Carrick took his own swing. He may have missed, what with losing 3-0 without Fernandes, but it was needed as a reminder to United’s players that they are not bigger than their club.

And for that, good on Carrick, who may now lose his job as a consequence. At least he will have gone out with the supporters at Old Trafford singing his name before they showed the players what they thought of them. 

But if United fans want to feel a little better, Newcastle replaced Gullit with the wonderful Sir Bobby Robson, and Shearer finished that same season scoring 30 goals.

Let's take a look at Arteta's dossier 

You can think Mikel Arteta is slightly strange, but in this world of managers giving mundane answers to the media we should be thankful that every so often, the man in charge of the champions is willing to provide us with new insight.

This time, after being booked during the 2-0 win over Everton, Arteta told us how he has been clipping up footage of other head coaches stepping out of their technical area during matches. He insists he has evidence that another manager did so more than 30 times in 10 minutes without receiving a yellow.

That was gold dust for the World Wide Web. A glance at one online forum threw up a ton of ideas. Set up sensors around the technical area and have managers wear shock collars! Give the fourth official a water spray to teach them a lesson like a misbehaving cat! Set up rakes around the white lines so when they step on them, they get hit like Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons!

Good suggestions, all. It would certainly give Howard Webb’s Pro Ref one fewer issue to think about when they should have bigger concerns while trying to officiate the Premier League fairly.

Jokes aside, from an Arsenal perspective, it is good that Arteta is willing to fight the narrative that he is the only one who behaves badly in his technical area. He is not. We all know he is not, and we should believe him when he claims he can prove it to Webb and Co.

Within that dossier might now be a clip of Roberto De Zerbi celebrating Tottenham scoring by invading the pitch at Chelsea. He had already been booked for a bust-up with the opposition bench. 

Had this been Arteta, we might have heard more talk of what a naughty boy he is, and how he gets away with too much. But Arsenal should be glad that their manager is happy to hit back.

Cherries taking on the challenge

United lost, so inevitably, the temptation is to purely discuss them and their troubles. But it would be wrong for us to disregard the role played by Bournemouth, who secured their fourth consecutive win without conceding despite juggling European football for the first time ever.

Thursday: 3-0 win over Sturm Graz, Europa League. Sunday: 2-0 win over Sunderland, Premier League. Thursday: 3-0 win over AC Milan, Europa League. Sunday: 3-0 win over United, Premier League. Their fixture list before the November international break has Marco Rose’s team playing Wednesday, Saturday, Thursday, Sunday in three different competitions.

Which is one hell of a slog for a side not used to all this, and the greatest challenge they face. The travelling. The recovery. The training sessions they then squeeze in. Over the last two weeks, Bournemouth have handled it with impressive ease.

If they can continue to handle this workload, it can only help the club convince their players that they should not be seen as a stepping stone.

That is what Bournemouth, led by their owner, Bill Foley, want.

They do not want to be a temporary home to the Antoine Semenyos and Illia Zabarnyis and Dean Huijsens who find their way to them. They want to get to a place where they keep them.

Tactics backfired for Alonso

Chelsea found out the day before playing Tottenham that they would not have Joao Pedro, whose injury is being assessed and with no timeline yet placed on his return.

Xabi Alonso could have simply added Danny Welbeck to his starting line-up as a like-for-like replacement, a striker for a striker. But he tried something different.

He added Geovany Quenda to his line-up. It was his first start for Chelsea, and he acted as another No 10 alongside Cole Palmer while Morgan Rogers was a false nine.

With the power of hindsight, we can say it smacked of Alonso overthinking the problem as Chelsea never looked like beating Spurs with their 11th-hour shake-up. That the tactics then resembled ‘hoof and hope’ only made it more confusing that an actual striker was not used.

De Zerbi's turning point 

As for Tottenham, that first victory at Stamford Bridge since 2018 should be a turning point for De Zerbi, more so than their win at Coventry which was helped by Carl Rushworth.

The performance itself was brimming with positivity, even as they impressively coped while losing James Maddison to a second-half injury. His replacement, Conor Gallagher, was like bait for Chelsea as a former player. Palmer fouled him to receive his second yellow. Rogers was fortunate that the refereeing team did not think he deserved red for giving Gallagher a kicking of his own.

Is sacking Pierre Sage really the answer?

The man may have taken over a Crystal Palace team which won the Conference League last season, but he inherited problems, and the suits upstairs cannot escape scrutiny for the players now at his disposal. They practically sold their back line without properly replacing them, and now have the worst defensive record in the Premier League.

Delap's image problem 

Liam Delap does not help his image. He wants to be known as a footballer, but can sometimes bring to mind that bloke in Sunday league who is more interested in scrapping.

On Friday, the Nottingham Forest striker went for the ball with Ipswich captain Dara O’Shea, who was left with a shirt ripped to smithereens. Chelsea tired of that side to Delap’s game, and his lack of scoring, and did extraordinarily well to secure £50million for him in the summer.

Arbeloa's acid test 

A text from a Craven Cottage contact a couple of weeks ago told us how even some players inside the Fulham changing room were unsure of Alvaro Arbeloa’s methods.

Arbeloa appeared on the brink at that time, then Fulham won twice in the Premier League, beating Hull City 1-0 and Coventry City 1-0.

Yet two narrow victories against newly-promoted sides will not end the noise entirely. Fulham’s next four league fixtures are against Aston Villa, Newcastle, Manchester City, Bournemouth. That is where he will be judged much more seriously.

Concern for Chappers 

Mark Chapman is up there with the best sports broadcasters in the country, and normally such enjoyable company in our living rooms. We have to hope 'Chappers' is doing OK because his subdued appearance on Match of the Day – the BBC show beleaguered of late – was concerning to watch.

READ MORE: United bosses locked in crisis talks over Michael Carrick's future