United move closer to title

Carrick sealed another comeback win when he drove home John O'Shea's pass from the edge of the box, leaving United a point away from completing a hat-trick of Premier League triumphs.

Only once during Sir Alex Ferguson's 10 previous successes have United done it in front of their own fans. Now all they must do is avoid defeat against Arsenal to render a last-day trip to Hull, for the Red Devils at least, meaningless.

If Carrick was the match-winner, Carlos Tevez was again the hero, producing an impudent back-heel minutes after his introduction as a substitute to peg the Latics back.

Steve Bruce's men gave their all after taking a deserved first-half lead through Hugo Rodallega. But the Wigan boss knows more than most, Manchester United are not beaten that easily.

Antonio Valencia came close to an opener inside three minutes when he skipped away from John O`Shea and Nemanja Vidic but his attempted chip over Edwin van der Sar was wide.

Wayne Rooney spurned a glorious chance at the other end when he headed horribly wide from a deft chip from Dimitar Berbatov, before Carrick fired just over.

And Wigan went ahead when Rodallega outmuscled Vidic, who was so convinced he should have had a free-kick he was eventually told by referee Rob Styles he would be sent off unless he let it go, and drilled low past Van der Sar.

But Tevez came off the bench to instinctively flick Carrick`s low shot past Richard Kingson to level the scores and then, seven minutes from time, Carrick popped up with his winner to leave United on the brink of retaining their crown.