Alan Shearer: Michael Carrick has been let down by the Man United board, and De Zerbi's Tottenham woes

Carrick under pressure at United

Michael Carrick is under pressure, but I guess you know the rules in football if you don't win, and particularly more so at the bigger clubs, and there's not many bigger than, if any, than Man United, the noise gets louder. They haven't had a great start, they have just been average at best.

However, I really do think that they didn't back Carrick as they should have in the summer. When you think what they have spent and wasted over the years for them to only go in and get what they did after what he achieved last season, I do think they haven't given him the best possible tools going forward this season.

They need to turn things around after the international break but I'm not sure they've got a lot of options to help them do it. There's been a lot of talk with United strengthening in forward positions last year, strengthening the midfield this year, and perhaps defensively they haven't, but I'm not convinced they've got enough up top anyway. They invested heavily in Sesko, as we know and clearly Michael doesn't fancy him that much because he's not starting him. Defensively, I think they've been really poor. So, there's plenty to work on for them and I'm not sure that they're quite ready to get into the top four this season.

The problem is that we've seen this sort of script before with Manchester United and hiring interim managers. We've seen what happens. But I do think it's slightly different in terms of them not giving Carrick the tools from what they should have. I don't think he was backed as much as he would have liked to have been in the summer after what he achieved last season and getting to them where he did. I did expect them to go in more and buy more and they should have really as at the start of this season the proof is in the pudding. I do have a little bit of sympathy for Carrick. Having said that, they have to do better, have to play better and they have to get more points.

A long international break for Tottenham and De Zerbi

We should be surprised by Spurs' start to the season, because I don't think anyone in football would have said after five games, Spurs are going to be winless and they're going to be bottom of the league, with the money that they've spent, no one could foresee what's happening to them.

De Zerbi brought them back from the brink last season and kept them up but now the pressure is massively on. I think it's a long three weeks for Man United and Michael Carrick, but you can imagine what it's like for Tottenham who are bottom of the league and have so much to work on.

I've said many times, that they brought the players in this summer, but they spent an absolute fortune on them. On everyone, I think. I mean, Van Hecke was a lot of money, Tonali was incredible money, Savio, and Marmoush are others as well. It is a long, long three weeks for Tottenham and they simply have to start winning football games when they are back from the international break. All the bigger questions will start to be asked, if not already, if they don't start winning football games very, very soon.

I guess De Zerbi went into this summer with a list of players that he wanted and they have spent a fortune perhaps on all those players. I'm not sure the fees warrant the ability, but no one would have expected them to be bottom of the league.

I still think they'll have enough to stay up, they'll use the Aston Villa situation and what happened to them at the start of last season when I don't think they won in their first five games and they then managed to climb the league and qualify for Europe again, so they will look at that and think there's still loads of football to be played which there is but there's a massive amount of work to be done at Spurs. I had them to finish in the top six this season and I am not sure that that will happen now.

No panic from Arsenal after Brighton hammering

The thing that will hurt Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, is that you've got to sit on that loss to Brighton for three weeks because in an ideal world, you want another game two or three days later to try and get rid of that feeling around the club and he can't work on the training ground because so many of his players will be away on international duty. But they were lucky as it could have been and should have been six or seven.

However, there should be no panic from Arsenal and their fans, and they need to look at the bigger picture, they had 10 points after five games last season. They've got 12 this season, but what happened on Saturday that can't happen again. They were out fought in every department and every area of the pitch from minute one to minute 95. That is very rare for Arsenal because we've all said how brilliant they are, particularly defensively but I think all the credit has to go to Fabian Hürzeler and to Brighton because of the way they played and how they were brave in everything they did. They got the points; they deserved the points and as I said it should have been six or seven.

I think other teams now will look at how brave Brighton were against Arsenal and Brighton have got some really good players, even coming off the bench. But I just think the other teams in the league will, without doubt, look at that Brighton game and that performance and think this is the way to play against Arsenal, or this is the way we can try and play against Arsenal and Arsenal will know that now. It is up to them to try and see what they can do to counteract that, but definitely teams will look at that and think we should go that way.

Pascal Groß, Brighton and Brentford have impressed early on

I have been really impressed with Pascal Groß at the start of this Premier Leage season. I think there's two clubs that have been the standout at the minute other than City because City have won five from five, but you have to say Brighton and Brentford have been superb.

Anyone going in against those two teams know that they're in for a battle because they can do a bit of everything because they're strong physically, but they've also got technically very good players, both teams. So, Brighton and Brentford have impressed me massively up to now and Pascal Groß has impressed me the most so far this season from a player perspective.

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