Michael Carrick insists he “can’t rule anything out” as Manchester United’s resurgence under his stewardship has quietly reopened talk of an unlikely Premier League title push.

United’s victory over Crystal Palace lifted them to third place, behind leaders Arsenal and second-placed Manchester City, and extended Carrick’s impressive start as interim head coach to six wins and a draw from seven matches.

His side remain a distant 13 points off the top as they prepare to face Newcastle, yet the former United and England midfielder believes the door to a late charge is not completely closed, even if he is wary of fuelling unrealistic expectations.

You can’t rule anything out in football, but we’ve got to be realistic and know where it’s at, Carrick said. I think we’ve just got to try and keep winning games and see. Above us now there’s two fantastic teams. There’s some really good teams in and around us.

We’ve had a good run, we’re certainly not getting carried away. Of course I’m being realistic about it. We have to win a lot of football matches for that to happen.

Carrick’s calm authority and tactical tweaks have transformed a side that looked fragile earlier in the campaign into one that appears organised, resilient and increasingly confident. That turnaround has inevitably intensified speculation that he could be handed the job on a permanent basis.

He has consistently tried to deflect questions about his long-term future, but each positive result only sharpens the focus on whether United’s hierarchy might be persuaded to abandon wider searches and back the man already in the dugout.

It’s going to be every week, isn’t it, this? Carrick joked when asked again about his prospects of staying on. There’s no getting away from the situation of course. There’s not really an awful lot I can say about it to be honest.

I love being here. I love doing what I’m doing. I’ve said it from the start, I’m not making any decisions for short-term or quick fixes. Winning games helps and the boys are doing great with that.

We’ll just have to see where it ends up. There’s not really much I can give you on top of that at the moment, really.