LIVERPOOL, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Manchester United's Benjamin Sesko came off the bench to score a vital goal for the second game in a row as he fired the winner in a 1-0 Premier League win at Everton on Monday.
Sesko sealed an uninspiring clash at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in the 71st minute as he swept in a clinical first-time shot from Bryan Mbeumo's pass after a flowing counter-attack started by Matheus Cunha's sublime pass.
Victory sent Michael Carrick's United clear in fourth place in the table, three points ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool.
Sesko's goal was a rare moment of quality in a scrappy match in which United almost took the lead in the opening minutes when James Tarkowski cleared an Amad Diallo effort off the line.
United keeper Senne Lammens was called into action to deny teenager Harrison Armstrong before keeping out Michael Keane's thunderous long-range effort as Everton tried to reply.
This was not a polished display by United, but it continued caretaker coach Carrick's impressive impact since taking charge. He has now won five and drawn one of his six games.
"It was really important for us to win this game. It was really difficult," Sesko, who also scored a late equaliser against West Ham United 13 days ago, said. "We were fighting. They were fighting. It was a really 50-50 battle but we managed it until the end and secured the win."
United have 48 points from 27 games, with Chelsea and Liverpool on 45.
Everton huffed and puffed but struggled to gain any real momentum until the latter stages and are now without a win in their last seven home games in all competitions and stay in ninth place in the table.
"I'm not happy with the scoreline, that's for sure," Everton manager David Moyes said. "You have to win games if you are going to keep moving on and we haven't been doing that, especially here.
"They got the one goal on the counter-attack and we put in a great effort to try and get the goal back but just lacked the quality to make it count."
Carrick has transformed United's fortunes and they are now firmly in the hunt for Champions League qualification with Slovenian forward Sesko beginning to blossom after a slow start following his big-money move from RB Leipzig.
He has now scored six goals in his last seven appearances for United, having managed only two goals before that.
"We always feel as though we have a chance. The clean sheet was just as important as the goal. It was a fabulous goal," Carrick said. "Ben is in a good place at the moment and we've had some really good talks about it.
"He's going to be a big player for us for a long period of time I'm sure of that."
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
