MANCHESTER, England — Of all the things Ruben Amorim said during his time as Manchester United‘s head coach, the one that annoyed his bosses most was something about Benjamin Sesko.

Asked in November about the 22-year-old striker, signed for £73.7 million from RB Leipzig in the summer, Amorim said it was “a fact” that he had “struggled” to come to terms with the Premier League. The view from above was that the comments weren’t helpful to a young player trying to adapt to a tough league in a new country.

Sesko scored two goals in 17 games for Amorim. But since Amorim’s departure in early January, Sesko has seven goals in eight.

Starting under Michael Carrick for the first time Sunday, Sesko scored for the third game in a row as United came from a goal down to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 and move up to third in the table behind Arsenal and Manchester City.

Struggling? Not anymore.

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“I’m delighted for Ben,” said Carrick. “We’re working closely with him and connecting with him and building that relationship and trust. A lot is on Ben. He has put the work in. He is a good player and he has got some great strengths and scoring different types of goals.

“He is such a real threat. I am really excited where he can get to. He has got huge potential.”

Sesko is not just scoring goals — he’s scoring important goals. In his past three games, he has a stoppage-time equalizer against West Ham United, the winner against Everton and another winner against Palace.

Since Amorim was sacked, Sesko’s Premier League goals against Burnley, Fulham, West Ham, Everton and Palace have earned the team eight points. Without them, United would be outside the top six. Instead, Carrick’s team is third with 10 games left and on course to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2023.

“He has had a huge impact and he’s making big improvements,” said Carrick. “Part of it is getting used to being here. He is desperate to do well, he works so hard and he is a pleasure to work with. It’s a fantastic goal.”

Sesko’s revival started under Amorim’s initial replacement, Darren Fletcher. After the Slovenia international scored twice in United’s 2-2 draw with Burnley, Fletcher revealed he used the day before the game to show Sesko a video “showing his movement and showing his goals.”

The run of form which started at Turf Moor has continued under Carrick. Fletcher said he told Sesko he “needs to keep believing,” and there has been a similar boost of confidence delivered by Carrick.

Shortly after scoring at Everton, Sesko stopped in the mixed zone to tell reporters that one of the big changes is that “everyone believes in me.” It became an open secret toward the end of Amorim’s reign that he wanted to sign Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins instead. If Carrick has injected some self-belief into Sesko, the former England midfielder also deserves credit for playing to his strengths.

One of the criticisms of Amorim’s football was that he played with a central striker, but didn’t appear to ask his wide players to put crosses into the box. Sesko started Amorim’s last game in charge — a 1-1 draw at Leeds United on Jan. 4 — and didn’t have a shot on target. Under Carrick, his goals against Fulham, West Ham and Palace all came from crosses whipped in from wide areas.

With long limbs and a gangly style, Sesko can still sometimes look awkward when asked to take part in the buildup. But at 6-foot-5, he’s terrific in the air and sharp in and around the penalty area. His goal against Palace was a bullet header.

First, Bruno Fernandes equalized with a penalty following an incident for which Maxence Lacroix — Palace’s goal scorer in the first half — was sent off for pulling back Matheus Cunha. Then Fernandes popped up on the right and delivered a cross from which Sesko darted ahead of Jaydee Canvot and arrowed his finish past former United goalkeeper Dean Henderson. He went off 10 minutes later to a standing ovation.

“We were a bit off to start with and they started really well,” said Carrick, who has now registered six wins from seven games in charge. “At about 20 minutes it started turning in our favor and we finished the half stronger and then talked to them at halftime about being in that position and showing personality and belief.

“To come back like we did in the second half and to turn the game in our favor is the biggest thing. To put together the run we have and to do it in different ways is encouraging to me.”

United are flying, and so is Sesko. No other Premier League team is unbeaten since Boxing Day, and no player in the league has scored more non-penalty goals in 2026 than Sesko.

Amorim’s reign looks worse with every win under Carrick, while every Sesko goal makes those “struggling” comments look ever more misplaced. United are heading for a Champions League return, and Sesko is proving the doubters wrong.

If you can’t beat them, join them. Liverpool were slow to get on board with the Premier League‘s set-piece revolution, but their willingness to embrace the game’s increasingly agricultural approach has been instrumental in their recent revival, including in Saturday’s 5-2 victory over West Ham United at Anfield.

When Alexis Mac Allister drilled home the hosts’ third goal of the afternoon in front of the Kop, he ensured Liverpool became just the second team in Premier League history to score three goals from corners in the first half of a match, after Manchester United against Leicester City in September 2016. It is the kind of statistic that would have seemed preposterous in the early months of the campaign, when the Reds’ lack of proficiency at both scoring and defending set pieces negatively impacted their fortunes on an almost weekly basis.

Liverpool’s woes in that department were so pronounced that the club opted to part company with set-piece coach Aaron Briggs in December — although manager Arne Slot publicly defended his former colleague when grilled on the matter last week.

“It would be very unfair to Aaron, who was only partly responsible for that, because in the end I’m responsible for everything,” Slot said. “In the end it’s always my responsibility. But we were, in that period of time, so, so, so unlucky.”

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On the evidence of Saturday’s first-half showing, that luck has now started to change. Having been perennial slow starters in the top flight this season, Liverpool raced into an early lead when Ryan Gravenberch recycled possession from a corner and picked out Hugo Ekitike, who finished smartly past Mads Hermansen at the near post.

It was Ekitike’s 11th league goal of the season and his 16th in all competitions, making the France international the first Liverpool player to reach 20 goal contributions this term, with four assists also to his name. West Ham, who had lost just one of their previous six league games ahead of this weekend’s trip to Merseyside, rallied well after the early setback but found themselves on the end of yet more set-piece misery when Virgil van Dijk rose highest to nod Dominik Szoboszlai‘s in-swinging corner into the back if the net.

Liverpool employed the same route to goal again on the stroke of halftime, with Ekitike helping Szoboszlai’s smart delivery into the path of Mac Allister, who finished with aplomb to double his Premier League goal tally for the season.

His strike was Liverpool’s seventh consecutive league goal from a non-penalty set piece — the longest run by any side in the competition’s history. While Slot was right to assert that his team’s drastic uptick in set-piece form should not be pinned on one individual, the contrast in Liverpool’s numbers is stark.

Across their first 20 Premier League matches this season, Liverpool scored just three goals from set pieces — the fewest of any team in the division. Their efficacy from corners on Saturday, however, means they have scored nine set-piece goals in their past eight league games: more than any of their competitors.

“That’s very pleasing because that is the reason we have won,” Slot said in his postmatch news conference. “In my opinion, we have played better when we have lost and conceded from set pieces. But, as I’ve always said, things went back to normal.

“We created quite a lot of chances from set pieces in the first half of the season and almost every set piece we conceded went in, and today you could see exactly the opposite happening. Their first big chance was a set piece that would have gone in, in the first six or seven months, I’m 100% sure. But then it doesn’t and we start scoring from set pieces, things start looking much better and brighter. That’s really pleasing for us, for the team and for the fans as well.”

In a season that has been characterized by late drama, Liverpool deviated from the norm by scoring three goals in the first half of a league game for the first time since the day they clinched the title against Tottenham Hotspur last April. Still, the Reds’ unwelcome habit of making life difficult from themselves once again reared its head in the second half, with Tomás Soucek diverting El Hadji Malick Diouf‘s drilled cross past Alisson Becker just four minutes after the restart.

With nothing to lose, West Ham continued to pose plenty of problems for their hosts before Cody Gakpo‘s deflected effort helped to calm some nerves around Anfield. It was only the Netherlands international’s second goal in the league since his strike in the reverse fixture at the London Stadium in late November, and his impassioned celebration suggested it was a welcome relief to find himself back on the scoresheet.

A late header from Valentín Castellanos and an even later own-goal from Axel Disasi only heightened the erratic nature of Liverpool’s second-half display, and Slot will know more control and composure is required from his team if they are to finish the season in a stronger fashion than they started it.

Nevertheless, Liverpool have now won seven of their past nine games in all competitions and are up to fifth in the Premier League, just three points behind third-placed Aston Villa. They irrefutably remain an imperfect side, and even in securing their joint-biggest top-flight win of the season, they showed there is still plenty of scope for improvement.

But having been late to the set-piece party, Liverpool now look determined to make up for lost time. It might just be the secret weapon they need to make this campaign a successful one.

Players from the men’s and women’s Olympic gold-medal winning hockey teams appeared together on “Saturday Night Live” amid recent political controversy. 

The men’s and women’s players had been publicly pitted against each other after President Donald Trump called the men’s team following their gold medal win against Canada to invite them to the State of the Union, and joked that he would have to invite the women too or he’d be impeached. The joke prompted backlash, primarily from American and Canadian liberals, against the men’s team after the players laughed in response.

Women’s players Hilary Knight and Megan Keller were joined by men’s players Jack and Quinn Hughes on SNL, and made light of the recent controversy. 

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Knight appeared to reference Trump’s joke.

“It was going to be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys, too,” Knight said. 

Knight delivered another punchline after Quinn Hughes said the last time the men won gold was 46 years ago at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

Knight followed by saying the women’s team last won gold two Olympics ago, at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Jack Hughes responded, saying, “Nice burn. These gold medals aren’t just for us, they’re for all hockey fans.”

“Heated Rivalry” actor Connor Storrie hosted the episode. 

Several mainstream media outlets penned op-eds condemning the men’s team for laughing at the joke, visiting the White House to celebrate and attending Trump’s State of the Union address. 

During an interview on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday, Hughes opened up about his respect for the women’s team after McAfee appeared to reference the controversy by joking that Hughes and his teammates “hate” the women players.

“We are hanging out with them so much, the women’s team. We were supporting them. Like, we were at their games, they were at our games,” Hughes said. 

Hughes then appeared to address the recent criticism of his team for its response to Trump’s joke.

“Like all these people talking, how many of them watched their gold medal game? Me and Quinn Hughes were at the game. We were at the game until, like, overtime ended on the glass, and we were jumping up and down so excited for these girls, so excited they won,” Hughes said.

“And how many of these people watched the gold medal game, watched their semifinals game? Like 10 of the 10 of our players went to their game in the round-robin. Like, we supported them so much, and we’re so proud of them. We’re so happy that they won, and they brought a gold medal back and that, you know, I said it, the men’s and women’s team both brought gold medals back. So, just unbelievable for USA hockey.”

Jack Hughes, who scored the game-winning overtime goal against Canada to win gold, reflected on his interaction with the player on the U.S. women’s team who did the same in Keller.

“Me and her had a great moment in the cafeteria after her gold medal game. We played Slovakia the next night, and it was like a late game. And we were in the pasta line — me and Megan. They were just getting ready to go out again, and I just gave her a massive hug, and I said, ‘I’m so happy for you. I’m so proud of you,'” Hughes said.

“A couple nights later, saw her again in the [cafeteria], and we took a great picture and, uh, she just gave me a big hug and was so pumped for me as well.” 

U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight said on Wednesday’s edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” that Trump’s “distasteful joke” has “overshadow[ed]” the women’s success.

“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and, unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” Knight said.

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“We’re just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke.”

Hughes’ mother Ellen, a former Team USA player and current player development staff member, said the players only cared about “bring[ing] so much unity to a group and to a country.”

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