LONDON -- Manchester United manager Michael Carrick said there is no "stigma' attached to the 20-time English champions dropping into the Premier League relegation zone after a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea extended the club's winless run to nine games.

As United walked off the pitch at Stamford Bridge, Carrick's team sat a point above the bottom three, knowing that results in the later games could leave them in the relegation zone at the end of the day's action.

United, who have not been relegated since 1974, face Aston Villa and Liverpool in their next two league games with pressure intensifying on Carrick's position as manager.

But when asked whether there would be a stigma attached to United being in the bottom three, Carrick insisted that would not be the case.

"Not for me, no," Carrick said in response to the question. "We've got to keep moving forward and winning games, simple as that.

"There's no words that I'm going to explain to you now that makes it [being in relegation zone] any difference, it's not going to change it.

"We've got to move forward and win football matches, it's as simple as that."

United have won just once in the league this season, against Ipswich in August, but Carrick said that his team can escape the relegation zone by "winning matches."

"You can look at it like that [negatively] and you can look at how far you can move up the league quite quickly if you win football matches," he said. "So that's the way it's got to be approached, for sure."

United missed a series of first-half chances to take the lead and control of the game against a Chelsea side that had lost its two previous games.

But a Morgan Rogers goal early in the second-half and the dismissal of Lisandro Martínez for two yellow cards handed Chelsea a comfortable victory, leaving Carrick bemoaning his team's failure to take advantage in the first- half.

"I think it was as good as we've played for some time in the first half," Carrick said. "We looked dangerous, we looked fluid, we looked like a good team and we looked really dangerous.

"We could, should, have scored one or two, maybe three even with the chances and the spaces that we created, and then the game gets away from us.

"The second half got away from us, which is something we've got to deal with, you know.

"Sometimes you get setbacks in games and you've got to deal with that better, you know, from being in such a good place first half.

"The two halves of football couldn't probably be more further apart in some ways."