Michael Carrick admitted he expects a “tricky test” in Manchester United’s Premier League opener against Hull City.The Red Devils travel to the newly promoted side for a lunchtime kick-off on Saturday.Carrick guided United to a third-place finish last season, and they are heavy favourites going into their first game of the season.Speaking ahead of the Red Devils’ opener, he considered the Tigers an unknown quantity, which he saw as part of “the beauty of the new season”.Carrick said: “I think certainly for teams coming up in the league, for the most part there tends to be quite a few changes within the group, the playing group.”It’s always the challenge when you’re playing against them. There’s that freshness, there’s that buzz around the football club of coming into the Premier League and what that brings.”We’re fully aware of that. We’ll be prepared, obviously, mentally and physically. We’ve done a lot of work anyway.”But mentally, we’ll be prepared. We know what the game is going to bring and how good we need to be to get the right result.”Carrick said he expects a ‘tricky test’ against Hull City | PAHull were an unexpected promotion after just making it into the play-offs on the final day of the Championship.The Tigers beat Millwall in the semi-finals before defeating Middlesbrough, who were reinstated into the play-offs after the Southampton “Spygate” scandal.With new signings including £20million goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis and big-money centre-backs Lucas Herrington and Nobel Mendy, Hull’s aim will be to stay up this year.An opening contest against United is nearly as hard as it gets, particularly after a very positive pre-season for the Red Devils.Hull City were promoted back to the Premier League via the play-offs | REUTERSCarrick is optimistic about the upcoming campaign, which also sees United play in the Champions League.He said: “Really looking forward to another season. They come thick and fast, so it’s about making the most of everything that’s in front of us.”Really encouraged with the work we’ve done pre-season on the training ground, mostly in the games. I think it’s been really good.”Very much looking forward to the first game and a tough one on Saturday.”All Premier League matches this weekend | GB NEWSMarcus Rashford has made a high-profile return to Carrick’s set-up after returning from his loan spell with Barcelona.Commenting on his comeback, the United boss said: “It’s been pretty obvious since Marcus came back training, with Kobbie (Mainoo) and Licha [Lisandro Martinez] in Dublin (last week), that he’s come back fantastically well.”He’s enjoying his football. He looks fit, he looks sharp, he looks strong, he looks ready to play football, so I’ve been delighted with him since he’s since he came back.”