Georgia and Susanna discuss both Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester reaching their first ever FA Cup semi-finals while Chelsea and Manchester United prepare for an old-time classic rivalry. The Cup action also saw Gareth Taylor knocked out of his second Cup in two weeks just after signing his contract extension.
The team also look into tis weekend's WSL fixtures as Chelsea and Arsenal kick-off on Friday night with the WSL title hanging in the balance, while the dreaded ACL injuries deprive seven players from featuring just at Stamford Bridge.
The team also look into tis weekend's WSL fixtures as Chelsea and Arsenal kick-off on Friday night with the WSL title hanging in the balance, while the dreaded ACL injuries deprive seven players from featuring just at Stamford Bridge.
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00:00 [music] Welcome back to the Women's Super League
00:05 Show with myself, Susanna Sealy, and National World writer, Georgia Golding. I am back.
00:11 Last week, you guys had a lot to discuss, sorry. Very much appreciate you guys taking
00:17 the reins on that. Unfortunately, we are without Graham today who is slightly under the weather.
00:22 Hopefully, he will be back very soon. Let's kick off. We've got some, and I'm going to
00:28 get it wrong, but Women's FA Cup action to discuss. You guys discussed Gareth Taylor quite
00:35 a lot or Manchester City quite a lot on the show last week. He's obviously signed a new
00:39 contract and just as he's done that, he has now been defeated in the FA Cup. Spurs are
00:46 now through to the semifinal for the first time ever, which is actually quite crazy in
00:53 my opinion. Defeating Manchester City on penalties, what does that mean?
01:00 That's huge for Spurs. Such a big moment. Then obviously, we'll move on, but another
01:04 milestone for Leicester as well, who are also through to the last four. On penalties, no
01:09 one likes to go out that way anyway, but I'm sure Spurs loved going through that. It's
01:16 one of those. Last week, it was heavily around City because I don't think many people would
01:27 have included them in a title race this season based on their performances last term, missing
01:33 out on Champions League football and stuff. They're right up there. We'll move on to the
01:38 DSL previews later in the show, but they have a chance to potentially go top this weekend.
01:45 They're out of every other tournament now and Gareth Taylor's just signed a new contract.
01:50 I've heard that some of the fans are a bit... There are some fans who are really Team Gareth
01:56 and he can do no wrong, but there are some who are now like, "What on earth have we done?
02:01 We've extended this guy's deal and we're now out of two other potential silverware opportunities."
02:10 That's not come at a good time. The contract's come off the back of a really impressive league
02:14 run and then as soon as he pens, he's knocked out of two tournaments. You couldn't write
02:21 it.
02:22 Sorry if I'm mentioning something that was discussed last week, but it was obviously
02:28 only... We were discussing last year about this time on the show, whether he was even
02:32 going to be manager by the end of the season. Obviously, he's now had this not quite fairy
02:39 tale run so far, but I suppose that is the way with football, that you suddenly get to
02:45 a certain point and everyone's on your back, ready to go. You lose two matches, that's
02:49 it, it completely changes.
02:51 Yeah, yeah. Because I've said in the past, I think the managers get the stick where maybe
02:57 they shouldn't. If teams have just generally got not a very good squad, it all still falls
03:04 onto the manager, which I don't think is often fair. But they have been on such a good run,
03:10 really truly improved from last season. It's silenced the doubters, it absolutely has,
03:17 but then in such a short space of time, literally the blink of an eye, and it's like, "What
03:22 the hell's going on with Gareth Taylor?"
03:23 I mean, to be fair, you look at the results. Since Alex Greenwood came out and was like,
03:30 "We want to win the league. I'm going to say it. I'm not afraid to say it anymore."
03:35 And then they went and beat Chelsea like she said that they would. Chelsea have gone, "We're
03:41 not having this." And their event was to knock them out of the Conte Cup, and then Spurs
03:49 knocked them out of the FA Cup. And it's not like they got battered. They were fine margins.
03:56 One goal knocked them out from Chelsea, and then penalties with Spurs. And Spurs are...
04:02 I think Spurs have been hit or miss, but I rate Spurs as a side. And I think they have
04:07 a lot of bottle, they've got a lot of fire, and I'm really, really happy for them. And
04:12 hopefully for the City fans' sake, this is just kind of, "Oh, it was really unfortunate
04:17 days out. Now main focus on the league." Because if they go on and win the WSL, I think
04:25 everything's forgiven. But we're a long way from that. So it is worth keeping an eye on.
04:30 This is such a twist in the tale. Prime bar, please.
04:34 So we will... I do want to talk about whether we think that they might do that, but obviously
04:40 with the fixes coming up this weekend, we'll talk about that maybe slightly later. What
04:45 I think is slightly unfortunate with the way... And it's just sort of literally luck of the
04:50 draw. Obviously, we've now got two sides that have never been in a semifinals before, and
04:55 they are unfortunately facing each other. I think it would have been amazing to have
04:58 a side in that final that maybe never been there before. But it does now mean that either...
05:03 Sorry, just to clarify, we've got Chelsea versus Manchester United and Spurs versus
05:09 Leicester in the final four. So obviously Spurs versus Leicester does mean that one
05:13 of those sides is not going to go through. What do you think of that matchup?
05:19 It's... Yeah, it would have been... I don't know. I think that's going to be a really,
05:24 really interesting game, Spurs-Leicester, because we've spoken on this show before about
05:30 how Leicester have really been clinging on in the WSL. I think last season we tipped
05:38 them to go down the entire time and it didn't happen. And this season, they've just really,
05:45 really lit a fire underneath them and shown really what they're capable of. So I think
05:50 this clash is going to be really good. But it guarantees one of them in there, which
05:58 is going to be interesting, because if it was the other way around, the two of them
06:01 could be out and it could be Chelsea United in the final. Which is good, but we want to
06:12 see... Because I think I remember, what year was it? I think Chelsea took on Bristol City
06:16 in the Conti Cup final and everybody knew what was going to happen. Bristol even knew
06:21 what was going to happen. But it was still like, "Oh my God, yes, Bristol City are in
06:27 a final. This is great." And so, yeah, I'm glad that... My money's on Spurs, if you were
06:34 to ask me. But to see one of them through to a final will just be great, because there
06:41 are the powerhouses in English women's football. And it's just, as a neutral anyway, it's great
06:45 to see somebody other than those teams get through and have a shot at stuff.
06:49 Yeah, 100%. And as we've spoken about before as well, just to hammer it down, we get so
06:55 used to seeing the likes of Chelsea that usually are doing so well in these cups. But the league
07:01 is changing for the better, which means that you do get these slightly more competitive
07:05 fixtures and you get these underdog sides. And I think everyone loves an underdog story.
07:10 So it's great to see these sides coming up and showing what they can do as the league
07:15 gets more competitive. And having said that, obviously the Conte Cup is not quite the same.
07:24 So we do literally have a Chelsea versus Arsenal final, which will still be really exciting.
07:30 And what do you make... Because as we spoke, or as we've just mentioned there, Chelsea
07:35 took their revenge on Manchester City. And it was only a 1-0 win. I don't know if you
07:41 managed to see any of it, but do you think that's something that actually Gary Saylor
07:44 will look back at and think, "We really should have won that"?
07:48 Yeah, I think any small scoreline like that, the losing side will think, "God, such fine
07:55 margins." And if you're battered, yes, you need to go out to the drawing board anyway
07:59 and see what went horribly wrong. But at least you can come to terms with the fact that,
08:02 "Well, it was a whitewash. We had no chance." But yeah, there will be some severe frustrations
08:08 considering they hadn't long reversed that score and beat Chelsea themselves. But yeah,
08:16 Hannah Hampton had a really good gaming goal. I'm looking at their stats now, actually,
08:21 because Lauren James scored in the eighth minute. So for Chelsea to hold on to that
08:27 lead for pretty much the entire game, that shows their resilience. Because they don't
08:34 always have to win 4-0, 5-0. Just getting it over the line is enough. And yes, City
08:41 had 23 shots.
08:42 Yeah, actually, looking at these stats, that's ridiculous. 23 shots on target compared to
08:48 Chelsea's eight. Oh, sorry, 23 shots. Sorry, not 23 shots on target. That would have been
08:55 a rip-off last week when Graham said that the people were going to be angry.
09:02 I did enjoy that. Let's just keep mentioning Jill Scott for as long as we can, because
09:08 I did enjoy that bit. So passing accuracy as well, 90% versus 79%. Possession, 64 versus
09:17 36. I mean, that's incredible, actually, that Chelsea managed to... I say incredible, we're
09:21 sort of used to seeing Chelsea win. But actually being able to hold on for, as you say, like
09:26 80 minutes.
09:27 Yeah, like, and you know, they're without so many key players as well. I mean, you can
09:34 always count on Lauren James, let's be honest. She's turned into such a global superstar.
09:40 So the fact that she came up clutch, got them the win, just speaks volumes about how much
09:44 she's progressing and really coming into the spotlight. But yeah, death, taxes, and a Chelsea
09:50 Arsenal final. This is Chelsea's fifth consecutive and it will be the third time they've met
09:56 Arsenal in that time. They love a London rivalry ending in the Conte Cup today. So yeah, I
10:05 mean, who would you say is going to come out on top if you had to decide?
10:11 Well, I've sort of, I've watched a few more, sort of slowly becoming, I don't really want
10:16 to publicise it, I guess, but slowly becoming more of an Arsenal fan for several reasons.
10:21 However, I do like, it just would be quite nice for Emma Hayes to have like a really
10:26 nice sort of swan song thing. And on that note, there's obviously chat that she is now
10:32 going after the quadruple. And after the break, which is fast approaching, we actually might
10:40 get a sort of Conte Cup preview of what will happen in that match. As we discussed Chelsea
10:45 versus Arsenal at Stamford Bridge this weekend.