The striker, signed for a hefty fee over the summer, has struggled for minutes since Carrick’s arrival, playing just 27 minutes in his first three games in the dugout.
Carrick has instead preferred to use Bryan Mbeumo as his central striker, who was on target in the wins over Manchester City and Arsenal.
United host Tottenham on Saturday, but former Red Devils defender Danny Simpson believes Sesko is still best used as an impact player off the bench, especially when compared to his more polished attacking teammates.
‘I feel like everyone at the club, the players, his teammates, the fans, the coaching staff, it’s like they all scored because they obviously want him to have a big moment like that, and I hope that will kickstart his Man United career now,’ Simpson told Metro via Kiwislots.nzwhen asked about Sesko.
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Benjamin Sesko scored a late winner against Manchester United (Picture: Getty)
‘But because he’s still young and raw, I still think coming off the bench 20, 30 minutes is probably good for him at the moment.
‘I still believe that the front four, the pace, the relationship they are building up, I still think Sesko coming off the bench is where he is at, and hopefully he can keep doing that and making an impact off the bench.
‘There’s nothing wrong with that, by the way. Some of our best strikers used to do that, obviously. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer used to do that, so I think at the moment it’s nice that there’s no pressure on him.
‘He just comes on and gives his best for the 20, 30 minutes that he plays.’
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On Carrick’s impressive use of subs, Simpson added: ‘Last week he brings Cunha on, he scored the winner, then against Fulham he brought on Sesko, he scored the winner.
‘I think that’s always been Man Utd’s DNA as well. People coming off the bench and having an impact, and getting a point or getting a winner.
‘For me, that’s the encouraging thing. Even at 2-2 normally, all the lads would get their heads down and go, ‘oh God’. They didn’t, they kept going, and that’s what I think I’ve liked about this team.’
Carrick has not started Sesko since taking over at United (Picture: Getty)
United are looking to make it four wins in a row under Carrick on Saturday, but have a torrid recent record against Spurs, having failed to win any of the last six league encounters between the two sides.
But Simpson is confident his former side will put those demons to bed and continue their remarkable start to life under Carrick.
‘Tottenham’s away form is actually pretty good so you can’t take this game lightly,’ he said.
‘Whatever it is at Tottenham, they clearly feel better playing away from home. Maybe less pressure from the fans, so it will be a tough game.
‘But I’m actually really confident. I’d probably just go with a nice, safe 2-0 win for United, and just hopefully keep pushing.
‘They’ve still got a massive chance to get in the Champions League, which is what the club needs for the finances for everybody.’
There is much to admire about Arsenal’s two defensive rocks, Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba (Picture: Getty)
Almost 11 years ago, Jose Mourinho had a smirk on his face.
His dominant Chelsea side had moved within five points of the Premier League title with a 0-0 draw at the Emirates, and sitting in the post-match press conference, the Special One crafted his killer response to the Arsenal fans’ chants of ‘Boring, boring Chelsea.’
‘You know, I think boring is ten years without a title. That’s very boring.’
A decade on, Mourinho is long gone from the Premier League, yet his words continue to haunt Arsenal, whose league drought has stretched to 22 years since their 2004 Invincibles triumph.
‘Specialist in failure’ Arsene Wenger departed in 2018, allowing Mikel Arteta to supercharge the Gunners’ return to the elite, but three successive second places have come at a huge cost to their identity.
Now it’s ‘boring, boring Arsenal.’ But Arteta disagrees.
He said: ‘I hear completely the opposite: all around Europe that we are the most exciting team in Europe – the most goals, the most clean sheets.’
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Indeed, Arsenal scored 23 Champions League goals in their flawless league phase campaign, more than any other club across Uefa competitions this season, whilst conceding three fewer than any other UCL team.
Viktor Gyokeres helped ensure Arsenal ended their Champions League group stage campaign with a flawless record of eight wins from eight games (Picture: Getty)
That run included victories over Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, who are six and five points clear in their domestic leagues.
However, it is in the Premier League where Arsenal have drawn dissatisfaction from pundits.
‘No one will remember this Arsenal team’, said ex-Chesterfield loanee Jamie O’Hara on TalkSport, whilst ex-Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes claimed on his own podcast, ‘If Arsenal win, this could be the worst team to win the league.’
But the data doesn’t agree.
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Arsenal are projected to finish the season with 84 points, identical to Arne Slot’s outstanding Liverpool team last season and five more than Manchester United’s treble winners in 1999.
In fact, United boast six of the nine lowest Premier League winning points totals, including a lowly 75 points in 1997. Scholes played in all six.
Of course, many observers highlight Arsenal’s efficiency from set-pieces and deride them as one-dimensional, especially regarding corners.
According to Chris Anderson and David Sally in their book, ‘The Numbers Game’, a goal occurs every 45 corners. In the Premier League this season, Arsenal have scored 17 goals from 148 corners, meaning they score every 8.7 corners, vastly outperforming Anderson and Sally’s metric.
Declan Rice’s corner taking expertise have been key to Arsenal’s success (Picture: Getty)
But becoming a greater threat from a wider variety of chances denotes a team that is more exciting, not less so. Arsenal fans’ cheering of earning corner kicks may have become their latest charge in a list of footballing crimes including AFTV and Piers Morgan, but surely it would be more boring if they sat in silence as their team delivered nothing from them.
Ahead of Newcastle’s clash with PSG last week, Anthony Gordon echoed the thoughts of many Premier League fans, saying, “In the Champions League […] teams try and come to play proper football.
‘In the Premier League, you have seen longer throw-ins, set pieces – it has become slower and a lot more set-piece based.’
He is undoubtedly right, but these are the symptoms of a slower league, not the cause.
Set pieces have become the most effective way to bypass the deep blocks and defensive systems of teams who expect to be played off the park if they play expansive football. Stoke City’s Pulis-ball was intended to disrupt teams. Arteta and his fellow set-piece disciples are trying to overcome today’s disruptors.
The games that will define Arsenal's Premier League season
Spurs (A), Feb 22
Arsenal’s north London rivals would love nothing more than to trample the Gunners’ hopes of a first league title in 22 years. Revenge for November’s 4-1 defeat will represent a dangling carrot for Thomas Frank’s men, with memories of Eberechi Eze’s hattrick fresh in the minds. Spurs have faltered once again this season, sitting 14th, but with Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro supposedly returning soon, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium may become a more formidable prospect in the back end of the season.
Chelsea (H), March 1
Only a week after the Spurs match, Arsenal will host Chelsea. The Blues had won won five matches in a row under Liam Rosenior prior to Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup demise and will have a desire to set the record straight.
Manchester City (A), April 18
No matter what happens between now and Arsenal’s visit to the Etihad Stadium on 18 April, it will be the biggest game of the season for both sides, regardless of whatever transpires in the League Cup final a month prior to this fixture. A Pemier League trophy would release six years of mounting pressure on Mikel Arteta since his sole managerial trophy in the 2020 FA Cup, as well as allowing him to finally step out of his mentor Guardiola’s shadow. What better time to do it than against the Catalan?
Newcastle (H), April 25
Perhaps Arsenal’s match against Newcastle is not as laced with jeopardy as City a week earlier, but the Magpies are a dangerous prospect. The Gunners have been burned by them before, with particularly nightmarish memories from the Carabao Cup semi-final defeat last season, and Bruno Guimaraes prolonging their five-year wait for Champions League football in the penultimate fixture of the 2021-2022 season. Mid-table Newcastle are also likely to be knee-deep in a scramble for the European places.
Crystal Palace (A), May 24
Despite Eze’s departure to Arsenal last summer, Crystal Palace’s season started tremendously and they were fifth after twelve games played. In the ten games since, they have won just nine more points, lost Marc Guehi to City, and suffered the ignominy of Olver Glasner very publicly declaring his disappointment with the board and intent to leave the club in the summer. But the Eagles could pose a real threat if Arsenal arrive at Selhurst Park on the final day of the season without the Premier League trophy guaranteed. Glasner’s departure means he will be fired up to put himself in the shop window ahead of the summer break, and Eze’s former teammates won’t want to let him have it his own way.
And that is more important than ever, because as money continues to flood into football, the rewards get bigger, and the incentive to prioritise style over substance disappears. Transactional football is the name of the game for all 20 Premier League clubs.
But until they win the league, Arsenal’s yardstick will be Manchester City, micromanaged to six stunning Premier League titles by Pep Guardiola and currently six points behind the Gunners in the table.
But City are arguably more boring than Arsenal this season. Their goals have come from 12 different players, two fewer than the leaders, and they have taken the fourth most shots, behind Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal.
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If the most decorated foreign Premier League manager of all time is struggling to break sides down, it is important to set teams’ performances this season in the context of increased transactionality.
The Sky Blues also only scored 15 goals in a Champions League campaign that required Benfica’s goalkeeper Anatoly Trubin to seal a 4-2 win over Real Madrid, as City capitalised to sneak into the Round of 16 instead.
Benfica’s manager? Mourinho.
Moments after being labelled boring in 2015, he said: ‘If the media tells the truth, people will fall in love with us. But you have to tell the truth.’
The Premier League’s top scorer has just two goals in his last 11 games, a run contributing to City losing ground in the title race and looking more like the chaotic mess we saw last season instead of the well-oiled Pep Guardiola machine we’re so used to.
The Norwegian has been an inevitability during his time at City. 52 goals in his first season, 38 in his second, 31 last season. The numbers are staggering.
Haaland’s success is based on two basic things: being really good at shooting and shooting more than anyone else. And it’s the second part of the equation that points to his recent struggles.
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Up until Christmas, Haaland was averaging almost four shots a game in the league, with over two on target – more than enough for him to bag hatfuls of goals. That’s dropped to three shots per game and one on target since then. Yes, he doesn’t need many chances to score, but the more the merrier.
Haaland’s goal against Tottenham from the penalty spot was a rare sight in recent weeks. (Picture: AMA/Getty)
Does Haaland need to improve?
Of course. After the embarrassing loss to Bodo/Glimt in the Arctic Circle he said as much: ‘I don’t have the answers. I take full responsibility for not being able to score the goals I should.’ To be fair, he’s hardly going to throw his teammates under the bus but aside from the tricky Rayan Cherki, nobody has more assists for City this season than Haaland – not the ideal scenario.
In that same interview Haaland bemoaned the number of games City play: ‘I don’t want to speak about how I feel, I do my best whenever I am on the pitch and I am on the pitch quite often because we play ridiculous amount of games.’
It’s a common problem for players these days – football is as physical as ever and every game is a battle, especially in the Premier League. Add in extra Champions League games and the two domestic cups on top of last summer’s Club World Cup and it’s easy to see why there’s a drop off for some of City’s stars.
Haaland’s teammate Rayan Cherki has impressed at times this season. (Picture: Getty)
Some online fans found the time to stop celebrating reaching yet another cup final after the midweek win over Newcastle to comment on how much better and more fluid the team looked without their number nine.
Sure, Pep Guardiola’s ideal team probably doesn’t have someone like Haaland up front, but the trophy cabinet shows that they’ve made it work fairly well up until now.
There is also the fact that despite his poor recent form, Haaland has still gobbled up 30 goals in 39 games for his club this season, so while the dip means City may not win the league, placing any blame at the Norwegian’s door feels premature at best.
The reality is that the rest of the team needs to be functioning for Haaland to destroy the opposition in the way he can. Badly-timed injuries, fixture congestion and a squad in transition have all contributed in recent weeks.
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Guardiola has been able to rest his star man a couple of times in recent weeks which should help, but by the time Haaland takes to the pitch against a (slightly) resurgent Liverpool on Sunday, Arsenal could well be nine points ahead.
In a ‘normal’ season, we could pretty confidently expect a Guardiola side to go on a run of 10, 11, 12 wins in a row to haul back the deficit and take the title race by the horns.
But the combination of injuries and a more direct style of football than ever mean City can no longer control games and tire the opposition out with relentless possession.
So for them to catch Mikel Arteta and Arsenal it will require a big drop off from the north London side, a more consistent ability to manage games and one or two big name players to step up.
The Norwegian needs to hope those assists start flowing again soon.
