The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - A record WSL crowd and derby day delight for Arsenal and Everton – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

Faye Carruthers, Suzanne Wrack, Jessy Parker Humphreys and Marva Kreel round up the second week of WSL action

This is The Guardian. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Hello, I'm Faye Carruthers. Welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Derby Day delights and history made. Over 47,000 watched Arsenal beat Tottenham at the Emirates, while a record Anfield crowd watched the Jess Park show. If words could represent a shrug,

Gareth Taylor's It Is What It Is says it all as Chelsea pile more misery on Manchester City while Manchester United and Aston Villa continue their strong starts

to the season. We'll dissect all the weekend action, take your questions and that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Well, what a panel

we have today. The newly inked Susie Rack. Talk us through the pain. Oh, it's fine. It's nothing compared to childbirth. I had my first one in June, pre-Euros, unrelated to football, and I was pleasantly surprised.

So yeah, these two that are just line drawings were a breeze. Describe the new art for anyone who's not taken to social media to see so i've got um from the england squad announcement there was a really nice bit of artwork from an artist called kelly anna and i've got one of the players on my forearm and then i've got the fantastic cartoon from uh david squires on the back of my arm which is a little like lion from the free lions badge celebrating like Chloe Kelly in a little bra waving his shirt in the air it's very very funny and very cute I love that absolutely love that uh Jesse Parker Humphries a last minute call-up but an absolute delight to see you I know I was trying to think of like a footballing

analogy for this I guess because I'm normally producing and it made me think of Portland Thorns once had all their goalkeepers injured so they had to put their goalkeeping coach on the bench I feel like maybe that's that's what kind of what's going on here brilliant just to give everybody some context poor Robin Cowan has got the dreaded nasty nursery lurgy that tends to go around this time of year, unfortunately. Get well soon, Robin, but delighted to have Jesse Parker-Humphreys. And I promote you more to manager or assistant manager rather than goalkeeping coach. Not that goalkeeping coach is below, but you know what I mean. I am terrible at goalkeeping,

so that might be wise. Marva Creel, now then, Derby Day winner Anfield. Does it get any better than that as an Everton fan? I don't think it does. And we haven't seen many of them over the years.

Haven't seen many wins just generally actually over the last few years. So that's always a positive. Excellent stuff. Right, well, we'll discuss that in a a second but let's start at the Emirates shall we? A 4-0 win for Arsenal. Goals from Beth Mead, Vivian Miedema and Rafaela but the experience off the pitch was very important as well. 47,367 was the exact record attendance. Susie, we know you're a lifelong Arsenal fan.

What did that day mean to you? Well, simply taking the record off Spurs was the thing that I was most looking forward to from the day. Speaking non-journalistically as an Arsenal fan. So spiteful. It really annoyed me that we have this incredible, rich history in women's football and Spurs have come along and taken the record crowds. That really, really grated on me.

So it was good. But I thought Rhiann Skinner was excellent afterwards. She said that it was a record that stood for too long and that it was great to see and that everyone in football is sort of driving for this together. And I really liked that because I hadn't really thought about it like that. It is true, it has taken too long to break this record. And she caveated that with the fact that COVID obviously intervened after those really great crowds at the start of 2019, where you had the record at Spurs Stadium and you had Stamford Bridge hosting Chelsea

and Man City hosting Etihad on the opening weekends and that kind of thing. And we've not really had those big games since built on the scale that we've had. The mood around Arsenal was great. I mean, it was like the like the build-up to some of the England games during the Euros it's the closest I've come to um that kind of vibe at league level and I get the impression that Anfield wasn't too dissimilar as well that there was a real real buzz around the size of that crowd there as well which I had heard wasn't going to be as good as it was but yeah like real electric atmosphere and just a real I think relief all around that we

were finally breaking it again and sort of catching up on where we were pre-pandemic. Yeah that's a really interesting point actually, because we've seen big crowds during the Euros go to Arsenal as well for maybe rethinking how they market some of these things because I think in the past they've maybe put games at the Emirates and not necessarily shouted about it in in the way that they have really shouted about this one and Arsenal as a club had a fantastic Euros with with England winning you know to have an Arsenal player captaining England you know an Arsenal player winning player of the tournament. Obviously, the pull of Leah Williamson and Beth Mead is particularly, particularly special. But even beyond that, you know, I think it also maybe speaks to how the good feeling around Arsenal as a club on the men's and women's side is kind of

coming together. And I think what's been really amazing to watch is, this might come as a surprise to some people who know me, but my family are all Arsenal fans. But you know, to see people who've together and I think what's been really amazing to watch is um this might come as a surprise to some people who know me but my family are all Arsenal fans um but you know to see people who've kind of been lifelong Arsenal fans that felt like a sound effect someone pressed that it was just Susie Rack insert gasp here but you know to see people who've maybe, you know, who've followed Arsenal their whole lives, but not necessarily bought into the women's game to be at the Emirates, you know, to have bought season tickets to the women's team,

I think that's just, you know, testament to the amount of good feeling around the club and around North London right now. Yeah, absolutely. Let's dig into the game, shall we, Marva? Jonas Eideveld changed things up with his starting lineup. It was obviously a disappointing midweek draw against Ajax in the Champions League, but Caitlin Ford replaced Stina Blackstenius up top. Why do you think he did that? What hadn't been working previously?

I think just what Ford gives us is that extra kind of runner in behind that they don't always have. And I thought her and Miedema worked so well together in this game. They kind of acted as a 4-4-2 for a lot of it, really, especially out of possession in their pressing. And I think that level of intensity, especially for an occasion like this where they needed to show something after that result against Ajax, just worked so well for them. Obviously, it worked for the second goal which obviously we

can criticize Spurs for but as much as we can criticize Spurs that level of intensity that that Arsenal brought there was just nothing that Spurs could do all game yeah it felt a bit inevitable didn't it Susie from the minute that Beth Mead curled that ball in uh after just five minutes it was a really fast start for them. And you kind of knew that the floodgates were going to open. Yeah, as soon as that goal went in, you sort of knew where it was going, which was a bit disappointing, really, because I expected a little bit more from Spurs. They look really quite well organised under Ian Skinner last season,

particularly at the start of the season. They obviously held Arsenal to that one-all draw. Arsenal held them to the one-all draw like they were leading that game and Mithima popped up in the 94th minute or something to head in really late at the Hive and conceded Arsenal's first points of the season. So I was sort of hoping that it would be a little bit more of a contest. I agree with Marva that I think part of that was just Arsenal was so good,

it was very hard for them to find any rhythm. I think it was like 70% possession or something that Arsenal had in that game. Spurs didn't really see much of the ball at all. I think one shot on target as well. It was in the first half a really tame effort yeah like you can't take anything away from Arsenal's performance but I thought Spurs really disappointed um it's really good to see uh Miedema scoring um again because she sort of I mean obviously shifting back into the 10 is going to shift their role a little bit. But towards the end of last season, I think she struggled for goals a little bit. And yeah, it's good to see her get two.

The timing of the goals, I think, was quite significant. Obviously, the early Meade goal made a difference. But then you've got Spurs sort of hanging on in there for much of that first half. And I think if they'd gone in 1-0 at half time I think we would have seen different side in the second half but conceding that second goal 44th minute I think it was really kind of killed the game entirely and any hope of a fight back of any kind. The third and fourth goals from set pieces really badly defended against you know they need to be doing better than that. They should have learned from last season that letting Arsenal get on the end of set pieces

is not a good idea. No, exactly. And I think Rhian Skinner will be quite disappointed, Jessie, because Tottenham are a team that we expect to be pushing after what they achieved last season, but they seem to really struggle against top opposition. And I know it's only two games in, but Rhian needs her side really to be a bit more competitive in these kind of matches, doesn't she, if they're going to do something this season?

Yeah, I think it's kind of always been a bit of a given that Rohan, Skinner's, Spurs team are maybe more defensively minded than they are attacking minded. And I don't think that has to be an issue but then when you see the errors that get made in I mean really all four of the Arsenal goals I think you can kind of put down to defensive errors even Beth Mead's it's a fantastic finish but there is absolutely nobody in you know the whole Beth Mead runs into is enormous and that's when you've got a problem right because if you're making defensive errors against the best teams you've got no room for the fact that you're only going to have you know one shot on target whatever I think they racked up the mighty total of 0.06 expected goals

for this game so I think it's a bit of a it's going to be an interesting one to see how she figures out because I think when you the Arsenal game is you know it would have been amazing if Spurs could have given Arsenal really a good game but I don't think necessarily this result was a massive surprise but when you look at it in context of the Leicester game where they also they scored twice but both of them were kind of these 30 yard ridiculous shots where you start to think well you know how is this going to add up across the season like where are the goals going to come from where is the creativity going to come from? Where is the creativity going to come from? Because it certainly wasn't in evidence at the Emirates.

No, it wasn't. It's going to be fascinating, isn't it? Right, let's move on to the second derby of the weekend. Marva, this is your moment. It definitely is. I'm not going to sing every week. Everton going to Anfield, winning the first WSL Merseyside derby for two seasons, a 3-0 victory in the end, totally in control of this match.

Pretty good to have Liverpool back in the league, isn't it? I know. I mean, I was quietly confident. I can't lie. I was quietly confident. I thought people were sort of underestimating Everton a little bit after that loss against West Ham. And I think people were, maybe this is my Everton bias coming out, but I think people were maybe slightly over-hyping the Liverpool win against Chelsea,

as big of a win as it was. But no, it was, I was, what I was surprised about was how well we played and how our domination of the ball was just incredible. And our composure as well to just as soon as we started we were just passing it around like it was absolutely nothing and

I think as Everton fans we've been waiting for that for a while you know last season was a shambles to to put it nicely really um so to see this newly formed Everton that's actually just calm on the ball and knows what they're doing and everyone knows their roles and working to a clear plan it was like what is this I haven't seen this in years so it was great to see. It kind of became the Jess Park show didn't it Susie she scored that wonderful individual goal set up Hannah Bennison's third how surprised were you that Manchester City let her go out on loan not overly surprised given that you know they've got Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly taking up those those front wide positions um you know she's looked good when she has played for City albeit briefly but like when you've got players of that quality in front of you you sort of need a young player like that to get

to get some game time so I'm not surprised she's gone out on loan I'm like in a sense I'm surprised maybe she's not pushed for a permanent move because with young players like that in front of her um her time at City is going to be limited whether she stays there or not is is a question I suppose if there's a big injury to one of those players then that changes things a bit but Everton's business has been interesting I thought because the the decision to sign a whole load of like young players young English players on loan I think is shown in this game to be a really good one Jess Park, Aggie Beaver-Jones uh even the goalkeeper Emily Ramsey from Man United um who was on the bench like these are, really good young England youth team players that really aren't getting much of a look in at club

and bringing them into a team like Everton where they're going to play and are very, very hungry to prove themselves is a really, really smart move. And Jess Park, I I mean what a talent like I think anyone who's uh watched her at youth team level or for City when she has played has been a bit excited but yeah the the composure for the goal was just phenomenal like real beautiful stuff um and yeah real real exciting to see her actually, hopefully playing week in, week out. Yeah, we will focus on Liverpool in a second with you, Jessie. But Marva, you tweeted out,

my favourite Everton trios in the last 10 years. Barkley, Delefeu, Lukaku, Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and James, Gio, Benison, Park. Connor wants to know, do Everton have the most interesting attack to watch in the league this season? Park, Benison and Gio, so young and so much potential. Most interesting is maybe pushing it a little bit

and maybe so is my tweet. I might have to swiftly delete that in a few weeks. It might be a bit premature. But no, definitely very, very interesting front three. I mean, even just the fact that we could bring those two players off the bench in this game. Obviously, Gio's only just joined. But when I was looking at the bench and we were doing so well,

I mean, Christensen, I thought, had a great game, slightly further up than she usually plays. And then Snowy, I thought, as well, did really well. Could have had two goals herself. And then to see, like, oh, wait a minute, further up than she usually plays and then snowy so i thought as well did really well could have had sort of two goals herself and then to see like oh wait a minute we've got benison and geo to just come off the bench and add to our creativity which you know sort of last season when we really only kind of had dug into be sort of leading that line that's such a huge improvement and to have those options and such young options and to see them all combined for that third goal

was really exciting to watch as well. Because, yeah, Gio's pace to get there and press in the first place when she was the only one in their half and that ending up in a goal. And I thought Park's awareness to square that ball was there had been a few times where our players had taken a shot rather than squaring it. So to see that all play out was like, oh, we might have something here so i know there's only been two games and a transfer

window to assess brian sorensen but what are you thinking about his tenure so far i'm impressed i mean obviously yeah it's only been sort of two games in a pre-season but i thought even in pre-season um within the first few games we looked like we knew what we were doing I think last season there was a lot of kind of quick one-touch football and to try and get us up the pitch maybe that was kind of out of panic a little bit whereas the difference in in this season is that we're so composed on the ball and it's interesting to play so many kind of players out of position almost but to their advantage I thought Gabby George had a really good game at left wing back um I thought Bjorn did really well at defensive midfield um

Christian like I said further up the pitch sort of playing as a left winger right you know behind the striker um so all these kind of little tweaks and changes which under some managers you'd see as a sign of kind of oh god they don't you what's going on? This is a complete sort of panic. Whereas this seems so sort of composed and everyone is aware of their roles, which is, like I said, quite refreshing to see. So hopefully it continues because yeah, it's quite exciting for once.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I can hear the excitement in your voice and it would be after the season that they had last year, it would be really good to see Everton kind of pushing the traditional top three a little bit more for sure. We need to talk about Liverpool though, Jesse. I mean, it feels like it's a little bit back down to earth with a bump after the high of beating Chelsea last week.

Marva mentioned there that that result was overhyped. Listen, as a neutral, I don't think it was overhyped. I think they managed to stay in that game and thoroughly deserve the three points in the end. If you can frustrate Chelsea like that, you fully deserve the win. But Matt Beard knows that this is a marathon, not a sprint, doesn't he?

Yeah, if there's anyone kind of in charge of a team who you know will be prepared to to be aware of what competing in the WSL is going to take it is someone like Matt Beard and I think that's why it's so good to see him back in charge at Liverpool I guess again what was kind of interesting for me in this game and looking at it in the context of the Chelsea game was how much Liverpool were able to create going forward and they actually created quite a lot but only after they were 3-0 down so it was almost like they kind of just switched on right like in the last five minutes of the game which was a bit of a strange thing and you know obviously these are very different situations compared to kind of playing Chelsea and you're going to want to sit back and and then playing

Anfield and I thought it was noticeable how much space Everton were able to find to put those kind of exciting young attackers to run into and I mean as a Chelsea fan I was like a bit jealous because I was like I think this game might have gone differently if we'd had that much space but that's what happens also when you move these games you know that's part of the adjustment for these teams that you know the pitches are bigger you do have to think about your spacing in different ways and it does become this slightly funny you know asterisk on some of these games where you're like well this when the situation's changed when the context has changed around it you're gonna see teams have to play in slightly different ways and I felt like maybe Liverpool hadn't quite, you know, tweaked in that way of how they needed to get themselves positionally.

But look, this is a team which one, already has three points on the board, which is kind of what matters the most from the Chelsea game. And two, has more than enough players to, I think, kick on over the next couple of weeks. We shall see what Matt Beard's side can do. Right, that's it for part one of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. In part two, we'll head to Kings Meadow as Chelsea picked up their first points of the season. Do you have business insurance?

If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Manchester City had more problems than just their social media admin thinking that they were playing in North London as Chelsea beat them 2-0 at Kings Meadow to leave them rooted to the bottom of the

table. I mean North London, South London, there's only a river separating it. Why would you know the difference? It meant that Chelsea became the first side to beat City three consecutive times in the WSL. A first half goal from Frank Kirby, a Maramielda penalty gave Chelsea their first three points of the season. Susie, fair to say this was definitely an improvement from both sides on their opening weekend, but still lots of work to do. Yeah, I mean, it was an improvement, but despite Chelsea winning and winning quite comfortably, they made it really uncomfortable for themselves. Emma Hayes said, oh, we played ourselves into trouble a lot and made it really uncomfortable for themselves um like Emma Hayes said oh you know we played ourselves

into trouble a lot and and made it hard and they they did um it didn't it didn't look like Chelsea of last season it's like swaggering all-conquering side never say die attitude it was like quite a disjointed performance it was like like when um Sam Kerr had first come into the team and nothing quite clicked at the start. But yet they get the win. And I think that's partly because City are incredibly disjointed and dodgy. If there is a plan, they don't know what it is. And of the two teams that didn't look amazing Chelsea were far more coherent but like that that's the best I can say I mean they it wasn't a a nice Chelsea performance and I know Emma Hayes said before the game that she didn't necessarily care about performance it's

about winning these games and she doesn't care if a game looks pretty or not. And I'm never overly worried by Chelsea either. You know, I know that they're always going to iron out these sort of early season, like, weaknesses when you've got Emma Hayes in charge. But it just wasn't flowing. And I'm not sure they've got the right personnel in the right positions as well. You know, they've got so many players that play at number 10 traditionally

and they're sort of trying to shoehorn all these players into a starting 11. And I don't think they've quite figured out how to make it work. Yeah, I was disappointed in Chelsea's performance, perhaps more than I was City's, because I sort of expected City to be shambolic. But Chelsea's performance was fine. Wow, there was quite a long pause there. So I'm going to take this to the Chelsea fan in Jesse Parker Humphries and say, was your performance just fine? I think I would go with fine, but I think I'm more positive than Susie about it. Is the gap to fine slightly more reduced? Yeah, I'm going to go it was fine. Just one, one, no gap needed. But you know, maybe, maybe for me, it's just, you know, the trauma of having to play Manchester City. The fact that we kind of were

comfortable 2-0 winners. I'll take that like every day of the week. This is a City team who still have players who can, who can and will hurt teams. And you kind of saw that in the, in the first half, Bunny Shaw just barrelling through Chelsea's defence on a number of occasions. But I think really once Chelsea took the lead, the game felt done. And, you know, for almost the entirety of the second half, you didn't ever really feel like Manchester City were going to equalise. And I think Emma Hayes deserves some credit for that, for, you know, switching up her defence, for going with the back four, using Mielder and Eriksen as her full-backs to kind of shut down Hemp and Kelly, and I think that worked really well, you know, it was notable that City's attacking thrust was only coming

predominantly through Bunny Shaw, you barely noticed Hemp at all in particular in this game. I definitely agree, the attack, I think, needs some things to iron out it feels like Sam Kerr's season hasn't really got started although you know if her goal last offside goal last week had maybe been given we'd probably be talking about that slightly differently and these are kind of the fine margins in football aren't they I don't know whether Kirby playing in this more central 10 position behind her is a bit strange to the two of them. Obviously, in their bonanza goal scoring season, Kirby played to her right. And I think that's okay. Chelsea, you know, they do start season slow. Emma Hayes likes to tweak things. They like to figure things out.

It'll be interesting to see. They've obviously got this midweek game against West Ham, which will put them, if they were to win, on the same number of points as Arsenal, but Arsenal would have the game in hand. And I think that's going to be a really interesting thing psychologically as the season goes. Although, of course, if Chelsea don't win, then Arsenal's advantage gets even bigger. So I think the West Ham game will be interesting to see in terms of the direction Chelsea are moving. You're right to mention Mielder and Eriksen. They were brilliant.

And Emma Hayes, after the game was like particularly praising their performance, shutting down Kelly and Hemp. And we can't not mention Lauren James as well, who was like phenomenally good. I mean, we've all known that she's like a prodigious talent, you know, for a very long time. I thought she's the best like naturally talented women's footballer I've seen since Kelly Smith. Doesn't it just show, though, that Emma Hayes was right to wait until she was fully ready? Oh, completely. And it's not even about being fully ready. It's about Chelsea as a team. And the way Emma Hayes puts it is the level there is so high and so much higher than anywhere else,

the way they anywhere else the way they train and the way they play that for any player coming into that environment it's going to take time regardless of where they come from and she said look at Khadija Buchanan like look at her first game last week not the best game in the world concedes the penalty is struggling to get into the rhythm of the league and the team but she's come from Lyon and she's a what five-time European champion like she's a very good player but the standards that are demanded at Chelsea take a little bit of time to get used to and obviously then you've got the natural like new team gelling issues too so most players that Emma Hayes signs won't slot into the team straight away unless they're a Sam Kerr or a

Khadija Buchanan who are experienced enough and trusted enough to be able to do that like most of the players she signs are the the Lauren Jameses of the world who who will be bedded in very very slowly and I think you know that's a conversation that she has with them when they're joining that it is it's not going to be a walk in the park, that you are going to have to work hard to get up to the level that we're at and then you will get your chance. And the fact that she's played two games back-to-back, started, starred, is very, very telling and testament to that strategy.

We should mention Mara Mielda, actually, because it was her first WSL start since March 2021 at right back for Chelsea and her first WSL goal since the 11th of October 2020, which, by the way, also happened to be a penalty against Manchester City. Now, Marva, City are an enigma

this season in many ways, as is Gareth Taylor, in my opinion. I'm not 100% sure if my manager came out after a game and said, it is what it is, whether I would be particularly enthralled by that, motivated by that. I thought it was a really strange comment to make. And as I said at the start of the pod, it felt like a shrug in words. Yeah, completely. I would not be happy if that was my manager. I think particularly given how the game went in the sense, I think City were sort of architects of their own downfall, really. They started so strong in that first half.

And I think Chelsea were lucky to go in at 1-0, really. And what City were doing so well was, like Jesse said, sort of pressing from the front with Bonnie Shaw. Also, Bonnie Shaw managing to sort of draw it back and really sort of bully that midfield even as well, where I think Chelsea's weakness lied a little bit. And then sort of when that goal went in, other than the Coombs

um effort which obviously was an incredible save by Berger but other than that it was they just sort of stopped and all the things they were doing well with with being aggressive in their press from the front just playing it into to shore at all um just sort of stopped in the second half and I don't know whether that is a mentality issue which makes the the comments afterwards even worse to just sort of say it is what it is, because that doesn't exactly boost their mentality for the next game.

Or if it was a tactical thing, which is also a bit worrying, because you just think if there was something that was working really well, why would you just stop it sort of completely? It was a bit baffling, really, because I thought, yeah, they were much improved in that first half

compared to their first game. so yeah strange around yeah the other thing that like surprised me is Gareth Taylor in the press conference afterwards went on the idea that people would be jumping on the mistakes of of of players like you know some of the defending wasn't great for those goals and the fact that they've got all these new players to bed in and that's you know then it's going to take time and things like that and those were the two things that he sort of went on you know that players make mistakes everyone makes mistakes we've got to be super careful that we're not jumping on it and then also you know it's going to take time for us to find a rhythm and stuff with with all these new players although there's plenty of teams or a lot of new players who don't seem to be having the same problems but I thought it was interesting because

I don't think anyone was necessarily leaping on the mistakes they were mistakes and they shouldn't have happened and it's like still quite early in the season when you've got new players those kind of things happen but for me the bigger issue was the the lack of a reaction to conceding there was none um that like that for me was the big issue the fact that you know well there were no changes to try and shift them out of the sort of like little slump they had gone into after conceding there was uh there was no like sort of tactical difference uh that was very noticeable if like if anything they sort of gave up um whereas you sort of expect a fight at 1-0.

So for me, that was what was the concerning thing. And that was what you didn't answer in the press conference, the fact that there was no real plan. And what is shocking for me about City is the talent on the pitch is so good. They should be doing better um like they good moments in the first half that should be the norm minimum like they have got a really really talented squad they don't look like they really understand what their collective role is and that for me is the issue and that's where the question falls on the manager not the players for those individual

mistakes in my book and like yeah I think it was interesting that he sort of shifted the blame onto people commenting rather than you know what was happening on the pitch bit of deflection uh they've got a little bit of time before they're back in action in the WSL 16th of October uh they will host Leicester City at home. And, you know, no offence to Leicester City fans, you would expect City to win on paper. If they don't, then there's a big problem. But that's just a hypothetical question.

So let's wait and see a couple of weeks, shall we? Right, let's head to East London now. See, I know my North, South, East and West. Manchester United beat West Ham 2-0 thanks to goals from Lucia Garcia and Hannah Blundell. Susie, Garcia's made a really bright start to life

in a United shirt. She seems like a great addition to that right-hand side. Yeah, really excellent and a really good first game. Getting a goal in this one, obviously a big boost

to the start of her campaign in England. What was interesting for me was that the goal scorers weren't the expected goal scorers in this for United, but also that they were scored in second half where, generally speaking, United have come out all guns blazing and then sort of petered off a little bit and lost a bit of energy. And it was the opposite in this game. And for me, that was the more interesting thing

because I didn't think West Ham looked awful. I thought they looked all right. They looked fairly well-organised, decent side, had their moments. But there was a patience to Man United and a building through the game that like I don't think we've necessarily seen from them regularly obviously two games in we can't say it's regular yet but um and last week they scored the four in the first half and then did exactly what I've just said they didn't do in this game but um you know the fact that it was uh Garcia and uh Hannah

Blandell getting the goals and you know not the likes of Katie Zeller, Melatu, Nelessia Russo, uh Leah Galton you know the more traditional goal scorers um just speaks to um the quality of the team and the way they're playing together um yeah there's like I like Mark Skinner I think he's a great manager and there's a real real sort of logic to the way they play and you can see that they're all like invested in what he's trying to do and yeah like for me as I said in the preview episode there's no better time for them to grab the third Champions League spot if there is one. Like, who knows if Arsenal screw up against Ajax midweek and the third place ends up going to Italy or something because their teams do better or something like that.

That would be hilarious. That would be very annoying. It would be pretty funny, wouldn't it, if England lose their third spot? It wouldn't be funny. It would be annoying. If England lose their third spot and It wouldn't be funny. It would be annoying. If England lose their third spot and United finish third for the first time, I mean, it would be frankly hilarious. That would be the most United in the WSL thing ever.

It so would. Well, it's very Spurs-y, if Spurs were to be up there, to be fair. I mean, joint top of the league with Manchester United and Arsenal. Aston Villa continuing their winning start with a 2-0 win over Leicester. Rachel Daly scoring a third-minute penalty before Emily Gilnick added an 86th-minute late-on goal. I love Villa under Carla Ward anyway.

I know it's their only the opening two games of the season but they just seem really comfortable Marva Yeah completely I think their additions to their

squad have been really really beneficial I think Dali obviously as an Everton fan I'm sad to have seen her go she was involved again in

the second goal and yeah they just look like I think sometimes you get these scenes you get an influx of of players that that seem like oh they're great signings and then it never really pans out um but I think this was their first two consecutive wins in sort of ever in the WSL something like that or in the last few years um which just shows you how it's never just it hasn't quite come

together for them yet um but the signing seems to be doing it for them which is good to see for them I've only just realized Dali and Daly yeah it's difficult isn't it i've only just realized how exciting it's a good job that they don't dally isn't it the pair of them headline writer's dream uh part of what makes this villaside so exciting jesse though it is kind of this blend of younger and older players that they have, I think. Yeah, I think this is something that's going to be really interesting to see them develop over the season.

And the reason why Villa's recruitment feels so sensible in that way, you know, they've got players who are at the club, Maz Pacheco, Laura Linkhilda-Brown, Freya Gregory as well, as like impressed in the past and then you know like bringing in Anna Patton on loan and that's like I think a really cool core of under 23-ish type players but then to bring in the experience of a Rachel Daly a Kenza Daly and Rachel Corsi as well I guess is another name who who's kind of been there and done it and

and to meld them together, not only are you taking your younger players up to a new level, I think, I think sometimes it gives those older players like a bit of fresh life to that, you know, like, and it feels just, I think, creates this really exciting mix. And, you know, I know Carla Ward kind of said after the City result that the most important thing was, was to go and then get the result against Leicester, you know, to kind of make the City win worth it. And I think it does say a lot about the team that you know Leicester are proving not to necessarily be as easy to break down as I think some people might have expected and this does feel like a game where last year maybe Aston Villa wouldn't have found that

breakthrough and to get it obviously I guess so early from from the daily penalty after Kirsty Hansen was was brought down helps. But, you know, to then kind of be able to hold on, stay secure. Yeah, I think it's a really exciting mix of players. And I guess, again, also credit to another club who, you know, took their time, I guess, to get to the top division of women's football and maybe get overlooked in that kind of mix because we do talk about Tottenham and their investment or United in their investment but have kind of quietly been building something that feels like it's going in a really positive direction. Yeah I think it's a really positive direction for the league in general actually that it feels much

more competitive because you know we talked in the preview pod about Brighton and Reading both looking as if they're going to finish mid-table again like they have done before Brighton obviously had a fantastic start to last season but looking at Leicester's strength Susie must be a little bit of a worry for both Brighton and Reading in many ways because they looked a little bit accident prone I think is is fair to say in that 2-1 win for Brighton at the Amex. It felt as if you could maybe put a bit of Benny Hill music behind some of the calamitous things that were going on on the pitch. Yeah, it was calamitous. I think Reading can feel a little bit hard done by the decision to wall out Deanna Cooper's header for offside.

Yes, there were a couple of players that maybe you could argue they were interfering with play I think it's a stretch she was she was so miles on side at the back post uh really like harsh for that not to be given it was just a weird game a little bit of a mess all round um lee gumin was brilliant um and i like i thought that she didn't necessarily have a great season for brighton last year uh like a bit quiet i suppose so it's nice to see her sort of starting to assert her authority in the team a little bit more and take control of things and be a bit more of a leader in that team. You know, she's got a huge amount of experience. So that's a positive.

But yeah, just a real messy game with some not very nice decision making. And it's great that we're in a situation where it's not easy to settle on a team that is definitely going to drop down. That's for sure. You'd argue that both of these two teams could be in contention for that on the basis of the way teams like Villa and stuff are performing at the moment. But they're both solid teams most of the time. Oh, I thought you were going to do this again.

They're both fine. I should have done, shouldn't I? I would have to severely object if Brighton and Reading had got the same review as Chelsea. You say what you like about Chelsea, but there was a lot less running into each other and leaving the ball for the opposition to run onto. Amazing.

Just one of those days. One of those days. One of those days today as well. Jessie Parker-Humphreys, thank you for jumping in at the last minute. You were a superstar. Happy to have helped out. Marva, lovely to see you as always. Thanks for having me.

Susie Rack, always a pleasure. Always. Let's go back to bed. Unfortunately, I now have to go up to St George's Park for the afternoon for the England women's squad announcement because there are just a few things taking place in women's football over the next couple of weeks busy busy busy some WSL matches midweek as Chelsea face West Ham and Everton play Leicester before the Continental Cup group stage kicks off over the weekend. Then it is that small matter of a sold-out Wembley

to watch the Lionesses take on the world champions USA. We will be back with you after the next round of WSL fixtures. That is on the 18th of October. The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly is produced by Lucy Oliver and Jesse Parker-Humphrey. His music composition was by Laura Iredale. Our executive producer is Max Sanderson.

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