Manchester United manager Michael Carrick has admitted his side are making the same mistakes too often after watching them collapse in a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

United produced an encouraging first-half performance but failed to make their chances count before Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer struck after the break to condemn the visitors to another Premier League defeat.

Carrick was particularly frustrated by how quickly the match slipped away from his players, with Lisandro Martinez’s dismissal leaving United to finish the game with 10 men.

United looked the more threatening side during the opening 45 minutes, with Matheus Cunha having a goal ruled out by VAR and several other opportunities going begging.

However, Chelsea took the lead through Rogers after the interval before Palmer converted a penalty following Martinez’s second yellow card.

Speaking to MUTV after the match, Carrick admitted United should have made more of their first-half dominance.

“Yes, that’s exactly what it was. You know it was as good as we’ve played for some time in the first half, coming here and playing that way,” he said.

“Looking so dangerous and having chances and opportunities, and we could have created more chances with the spaces that we opened up.”

The United boss acknowledged that failing to capitalise on those opportunities ultimately proved costly.

“So, going in at half-time, there’s a positive feeling but a little bit of disappointment, knowing that we hadn’t capitalised on such a good performance.”

Carrick also questioned why his side struggled to maintain their level after the restart.

“We never really got going in the second half. It started a little bit scrappy and then they score really quickly and the game changes completely after that.”

Carrick demands improvement after another Man Utd setback

The defeat adds to the pressure on Carrick, whose side have struggled for consistency during a difficult start to the campaign.

Despite finding positives in United’s first-half display, the former midfielder admitted the team’s inability to manage difficult periods has become a recurring problem.

“I think I take away a lot of the positives from the first half,” Carrick explained.

“I think we still take away, though, finding a way to let the game unravel and it get away from us. It’s happened too often really so we’ve got to learn from that and we’ve got to do something about it pretty quickly.

“We’re a great football club and we want to win football matches,” he said.

“The supporters come and, I’ve said many times, make a lot of effort, pay a lot of money to watch us play.”