Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens says the club can be pleased with their 13-point haul from Michael Carrick's first five games in charge.
Although United lost their 100% record under Carrick and needed Benjamin Sesko's equaliser deep into injury time to salvage a point at West Ham, Chelsea's failure to beat Leeds means they remain in fourth spot heading into a break of almost two weeks before the trip to Everton on 23 February.
It's a more positive picture than the one Carrick walked into, following the failure to beat three relegation-threatened teams in Wolves, Leeds and Burnley, last month.
While there is still plenty of work to do for United to claim a coveted Champions League slot, Lammens feels they can be happy with recent results.
"We can be happy with the first five games with him as a coach," said the Belgium goalkeeper.
"The West Ham result was a little bit disappointing because we wanted to continue winning and now, being two weeks without a game, we wanted to go in that period with a good feeling.
"But it's a little bit less bad because we scored at the end."
Lammens feels the clarity of Carrick's messaging has been key to his successful integration.
The former United and England midfielder only had three days to work with his players before last month's Manchester derby.
"One of his strong suits is communication, being clear about what he wants," Lammens added. "We knew what we had to do and executed the plan.
"City and Arsenal were different kinds of games because we didn't really have to make it ourselves. It was more about being compact, playing from the counter and creating chances, which is one of our strong suits. We know we can do well against those teams.
"Against Fulham and Tottenham we had to play more of our game. It was not always the prettiest, but the result was there, which is the most important thing, and something we haven't really done all season."