The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - Chelsea sock it to Arsenal in WSL title race – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack, Ceylon Andi Hickman, and Tim Stillman to discuss all the weekend’s WSL action

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starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. This is The Guardian. Hello, I'm Faye Carruthers and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. I feel like I should get all of the sock puns out of the way first, but I'll put a sock in it because sock gate kind of speaks for itself. When Arsenal eventually took to the pitch in their hybrid kit, they were torn apart by Chelsea, seemingly leaving their title hopes in tatters. No such problems for Manchester City, who keep the pace pace while United and Liverpool battle for fourth. And we'll preview the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals including Chelsea's first leg away at Ajax.

All that plus we'll look ahead to Women's Football Weekend and take your questions. And that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Women's Football Weekly is supported by Google Pixel, the only phone engineered by Google, an official mobile phone of Arsenal Football Club, Liverpool Football Club and the England teams. Google Pixel's working with the FA, Arsenal FC and Liverpool FC

to close the visibility gap between men's and women's football with the formation of Pixel FC, a collective of next-generation creators and presenters dedicated to covering the women's game. They'll have exclusive access to players, additional resources and content creation opportunities to give women's football the visibility it deserves. Search Google Store to find out more. Susie Rack, what colour are your socks today?

I'm not wearing socks yet. White. They will be white. In protest, not wearing socks. Yeah, never wearing socks again. I'm sick of socks. I don't want to see socks. I'm switching to sandals full time i think players should be made to play in tracksuit bottoms so that um socks aren't an issue anymore that'd be like much more satisfying scenario for me or playing flip-flops that'll be fine salon andy hickman what color are your socks today also white out of respect for uh actually no, out of lack of respect for Stamford Bridge and their historic rules. Tim Stillman, what colour are your socks?

Mine are also white, but maybe they should have been red. Maybe I forgot to pack the red socks and wore the white socks for the pod and now it's too late to change them. Oh no, I've got blue socks on just to buck the trend, by the way. Respect. Let's start at the very beginning, shall we? We should have a 30-minute delay so we can go and get some fresh socks. Well, I mean, we've had a 10-minute delay where we've been gassing anyway, haven't we? So we're close enough. Let's start at the very beginning, shall we?

A night under the lights at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea put a sock in Arsenal's title hopes. That is the last one, I promise. For me, at least. They cruised to victory in the end in front of a record crowd to maintain their place at the top of the table. So it ended Chelsea 3, Arsenal 1. A dominant performance from Emma Hayes' side.

Goals from Lauren James and a brace from Shukun Nushkan. Firstly, though, as we've alluded to, we do have to address Sockgate, which saw kick-off delayed by 30 minutes. For our listeners who weren't watching, this is exactly what happened. Arsenal arrived, they warmed up

in their traditional white socks, and despite some eagle-eyed social media followers pointing out that they clashed, as well as the rule that no visiting team can actually wear white socks at Stamford Bridge, it wasn't until they returned to the dressing room that they realised the problem. You can only imagine the panic amongst the staff at that point. They did find a solution. Luckily, the Chelsea Megastore is literally just outside. So someone

headed over there to buy 20 pairs of Chelsea Away socks. And then they taped them up because, of course, Chelsea are sponsored by Nike Arsenal are sponsored by Adidas which then compounded a problem that was already there um Susie you were at the game what did you make of the situation and do you think it kind of played into Chelsea's hands a little bit with the extended pre-match entertainment revving up the crowd I think that that was actually the best thing about it was the crowd were really, really pumped. The DJ was brilliant, like properly kind of turned it into a bit of a club night in the stadium.

And that was like really fun. I mean, obviously the whole thing's a bit farcical and shouldn't happen, blah, blah, blah, blah. I thought Emma Hayes was really good in like defending the kit man in her post-match and saying, look, these things happen, you know, let's not throw anyone under the bus here. i thought some of the reactions were a little bit extreme like yes it's a cock up a pretty big cock up but at the same time it's also hilarious

and it's going to go down in like women's super league folklore history like it's just a really funny thing that happened one of those quirks that will probably never happen again because every kit man is going to like wake up the like five times in the night before every single game in like a cold sweat having like remembered it and checked the socks 30 times over so like I think you know I hope it's the end of world did it affect the things I think it'd be Jonas was quite strong on it actually like in saying that no you can't blame the socks like they were just really bad maybe there was a slight psychological aspect for Chelsea like you know they were really up for it but I think they would be really up for anyway um

yeah I think I don't think you can use the socks as an excuse in any way but um maybe there was a small small small small bit of annoyance at wearing your opposing team's socks i absolutely agree with you in terms of not throwing somebody under the bus i mean you feel bad enough when you make a mistake without everybody absolutely vilifying you for it but salon i know you've been absolutely dying to talk about Sox. Reactions ranged from plenty of jokes to people calling it an embarrassment, some even saying it damages the game's reputation. Is that fair when a mistake happens

that the game's reputation is called into question? I think that's a bit of a stretch. I think it's hard to say that, you know, bringing the whole game into disrepute because of what really was probably just an administrative error and I think everyone's talking a lot about the kit man but I think if I'm correct in understanding this you have to kind of upload all of this stuff to a portal 14 days in advance for a WSL match or you know any any of the tiers and with that there would have been a note on that that said you can't wear white socks so whoever's done that the GM the ops team

whatever it might be has missed that note and then not passed the right information on to the kit man who's then packed as if they're going for an away game where they can wear their full you know red red kit with white socks um so I think you know where where do you where does the buck stop I don't know but I do think I think it's less about the less about the actual having to wear your opposition socks even though that is particularly embarrassing and I think it's more about the delays that really would have affected Arsenal's performance and I think allow Chelsea to build a bit more of a momentum because I do think everything well I guess Chelsea could have been on the receiving end of this as well but everything is so regimented up until kickoff starting from like a few match

days a few days before the match day right where all prep is going in for this time for the ball to kick off and so you've eaten correctly your all your mental prep your individual prep that you've done on your own your team prep your physio all that kind of stuff goes up to the wire right because you're going to kick off at the right time and then suddenly this thing has happened that's going to piss you off anyway if you are a player because you're like why wasn't this sorted um so that's getting in your head then you're like oh we're playing on a Friday night under the lights in front of all the cameras there's a record crowd at Stamford Bridge we're playing on a Friday night under the lights in front of all the cameras there's a record crowd at Stamford Bridge we're playing against our rivals we have to win this game in a title race if

we want to stay in and our prep has been disrupted and I think that for me is where it's like okay I can see why if you're then stepping out on the pitch you've had so many other things that you're dealing with there and then it's been hard to focus on that on that first whistle and then to go but they are athletes so they should be able to overcome it. But I do think I have quite a lot of empathy for them in that situation. Yeah, I think there's a lot to be said about the broadcasters as well and how it affects them. They pay a lot of money in order to show these games and the global broadcasters as well, who are coming out on various different time zones, have programming afterwards, for example.

There's a lot to unpack there. And a question over how people didn't notice this even when they were out training in the warm-ups and how it wasn't noticed by the various numbers of staff around the game. That's quite a big question. As we've all said, Tim, it can't have been ideal for Arsenal's preparation, but Jonas Eideveld didn't want to use it as an excuse, which is important. Sue's also asked about some of the team selection. This is sending us a message on social media, by the way. Alessia Russo, Emily Fox and Chloe Lacasse left on the bench. What did you make of the line-up, Tim? What went wrong? And are Arsenal's title hopes over? I mean, yes, I think so. I think they had to definitely not lose this game and probably win

it. And I think also the manner in which they've lost it is potentially quite demoralising as well anyway. In terms of selection, I was surprised not to see Russo up front. Usually Arsenal start Stina Blackstenius when they think there's going to be space in behind the defence. I'm not sure that that was going to be the case against Chelsea, but she did score a hat-trick in the last game. And so it was probably a case of, OK, you've kind of earned your place here. I was also surprised not to see Emily Fox starting as well. She's just come back from the Gold Cup, so maybe that was behind her and Lacasse not starting. I think this was less about personnel, though. I do think there's a couple of things in terms of Jonas Idoval pointed to the motivation that Chelsea had because the reverse fixture went

so wrong for them. In fact, these two fixtures have mirrored each other where the away team basically hasn't turned up. And he talked about how him and the players talked about Chelsea are going to be well up for this because they want to prove that that was an aberration. But I also think Chelsea did something quite clever tactically by playing Nushkin up front. It stopped Arsenal from getting bodies around Lauren James. So Nushkin was kind of pinning Leah Williamson. So when Lauren James is picking up the ball, she's one-on-one. And for Lauren James, one-ushkin was kind of pinning Leah Williamson. So when Lauren James is picking up the ball, she's one-on-one. And for Lauren James, one-on-one is no problem

against pretty much anyone. You need two, three people around her when she picks the ball up. So they were getting her on the ball quite isolated and then they still had three players ahead of her. And I don't think Arsenal dealt with that. And I said to Jonas Eidevall afterwards, one thing I'm not used to with Arsenal this season,

even though they haven't been at their best for many games at all, I'm not used to them looking so disorganised off the ball. I think that was really worrying because this was a team, nine players who were there the day that Jonas Eidevall was appointed and the other two joined not that long after. So there were no new signings in there so for them to look that disjointed off the ball I thought was very worrying. Yeah it's maybe a stroke of tactical genius from Emma Hayes and her backroom staff because you know Nushkan's

traditionally a midfielder she's been seen in defence in the last couple of matches to then line up alongside Lauren James as a striker was fascinating. And it meant that both players kind of caught the headlines and earned praise for Emma Hayes post-match. But does that flexibility and versatility, Solon, tell you about Chelsea's strengths at this stage of the season? Yeah, I think so. I think it talks to you about the options that Emma Hayes has available to her, even despite the injuries that she's got, right? She had no Bjorn, no Ramirez for quite a big fixture. And I think, yes, versatility is really important, but also they just capitalise on Arsenal not turning up. the the point around lj she obviously that hearing tim speak like that is fascinating right because my analysis before the game was like why on earth before the podcast sorry why on earth has jonas not worked out that you cannot let lj be so free in those areas of the pitch she was finding

acres of space right and she was allowed to take a touch and turn and start running at them for me that just felt so short-sighted with everything we know about Lauren James, which is if someone's pinned on her the whole game, and if you get into her head and you get her frustrated and you don't let her see any of the ball, she will go within herself or she will get really, really frustrated, right? And then she won't be able to play the game that she wants to play. So for me, it felt so silly from a tactical point of view that no one is pinned to lj tim has obviously just shone some light on why that possibly could have worked um but i still think you you have a duty within the first 10 minutes to work that out as a manager and say right well

we need an alternative solution here you've got some very good midfielders can you double up can someone drop in and always be screening lauren james and it didn't happen. So then they were just allowed to play through. And I think that is really where Chelsea were able to capitalise. Yeah, and ultimately a comfortable win in the end. Let's also discuss the controversy pre-match when Emma Hayes said player-to-player relationships are inappropriate. That was when she was asked about player-coach relationships in her pre-match press conference. So there was backlash on social media with Jess Carter then liking a post on X saying it was beyond bonkers to bring player-player relationships into it. Hayes did address her comments after the game saying, I didn't think it was right for me to

use the term inappropriate for the players and I've let myself down. I don't take those things back but I do have zero criticism of any player in my dressing room for anything. She said their professionalism for what they've given to the club, regardless of their status and regardless of who they're in a relationship with. What did you make of her comments, Susie, and then her clarification as well? I mean, her comments obviously weren't ideal, but I do think they were taking a little bit out of context. And I also think that you can have a little bit of a, we know Emma Hayes doesn't think that player-player relationships are the same as player-manager relationships. Like we know that of her, like we know that she doesn't think that.

So the use of the word inappropriate was silly, but later on she said it's just not ideal and talked about the complications of player-player relationships. The difficulty was is having that conversation and bringing that conversation in when you're talking about player-coach relationships which are you know there's such a deep problem and it is you know completely unacceptable that it happens and so bringing the two together in like tangent was a big mistake but the thing is is I like it's part of the trouble of the way things get taken like you know I sit on enough Emma Hayes press conferences to know that she

it like go often expands like to quite an extent and often goes bigger picture and like onto various different facets of of the women's football ecosystem like when she's talking about a topic and we'll go like yeah in all kind of different areas and you sort of need all of that in there to explain sort of the context of what she was trying to say and what she was trying to do and like I think the points she made about the difficulties of coaching players who are in a relationship together are very very valid points but yeah in the context of player coach relationships they just you just can't you can't put them in the same sentence you can't do that because it's just you know we're we're at the tip of an iceberg with you know the allegations against Jonathan Morgan, the allegations against Willie Kirk.

And, you know, it's such a deep problem. We know that there's, you know, loads, loads more still to come on this issue. Loads that isn't reportable as well. The various legal reasons that makes it really, really complicated. And, yeah, it just needed a little bit more care I think you know I think she should have you know kind of had a little bit a little bit more care around it in the build-up to that press conference. Yeah I completely agree I think whilst we understand Emma Hayes has as often we we

praise her for the nuance that she brings into the women's game route and her analysis and her sort of perspective on things. Whilst that can all be true and there can be lots of context, it was really irresponsible to take that press conference in the way that it went. And she admitted that afterwards, right? She was like, I don't, I never want to be someone who's just a clickbaity manager. And I fell into a bit of a trap, But she also did that by her own doing. And it's a complete misunderstanding of power dynamics to elevate player-player relationships to the same platform as a player-coach relationship.

And the worst part about it all is it's now got us talking about player-player relationships and worried about Jess Carter and her relationship or all these kind of things, as we should, because it's never nice to be strung up in the media in that sort of way and have a lot of attention on you. But the people we should be talking about, the people we should be holding to account are these men in positions of power, often very unregulated historically, who are abusing their power by entering inappropriate relationships with players and that's the conversation that we should have been having following the series of

press conferences last week with the WSL managers after the Willie Kirk news but because the way it has been taken we are now more interested in talking about player-player relationships and whether it was right or wrong Emma Hayes said that and that's the deflection that I think is probably the most irresponsible part of this because we have a duty to hold these managers to account when stories are broken around particularly around how inappropriate that they've been and and this is the kind of stuff we need to get out of women's football and by doing what she did I think it's just it's distracted a lot of people and that's not helpful uh sorry can I just add on this I I agree this is a really rare misstep from Emma Hayes actually so her kind

of media craft is usually very good I just wanted to add quickly I think Jonathan Liu uh was on Sky Sports on maybe Friday evening Thursday evening he made a really good point though about we're talking about player player relationships in a negative light and he was talking about like the positive light both in Jess Carter's case for example where Ann Katrenberg has gone through illness a couple of times and how the relationship like drawing strength in that relationship we've seen it with Viv Miedemer and Beth Mead doing a documentary together about going through injury and grief together so we're talking about player player relationships in that negative light when actually there's a really positive side to it as well that perhaps we're not accentuating yeah one thing I just wanted to jump in on was um I think

we have to be really careful about saying that this is just about the male managers as well because it's definitely not a problem with just male managers. We know it's endemic with female managers as well. And I think there's a slight risk in the narrative of becoming a little bit like we just get these men out of women's football and it's going to be a safe space. And that's a dangerous place to be in because it's definitely not a safe space with just women coaches. And that's a big, big problem.

And there's various legal reasons why, you know, some of those biggest cases can't come out. And yeah, we can't really say much more than that, other than to say that it's a problem way beyond male managers. Yeah, really good points. Back to the football with Chelsea winning. The pressure was then on Manchester City when they travelled to Crawley to face Brighton on Sunday lunchtime. Brighton are one of only two teams to have beaten City in the league this season. You'll remember a 1-0 victory at the Joy Stadium back in November. No such problems for Gareth Taylor's title

chasers this time round though. It finished Brighton 1, Manchester City 4 thanks to goals from Lauren Hemp, Mary Fowler, Buddy Shaw and Laura Coombs. Brighton pulled one back late on through Lee Ho Min. City came into this, though, having suffered back-to-back defeats. Did this kind of dominant performance show that that blips over and this City side is back to their best, Tim? They're now level on points for Chelsea again? Yeah, I think, you know, basically if you're Man City, you kind of would have just taken the best out of whatever the result was on Friday evening.

But this was a real kind of back to business performance. And what I'm kind of interested in with City, first of all, I think generally over the last few years, the team that challenges Chelsea is the most settled team, the most settled starting XI that usually doesn't have Europe. We saw that with Man United last year. But I think they're beginning to find players. They left Chloe Kelly out of the starting line-up here and played Mary Fowler. And one of my criticisms, not really a criticism,

but one of my questions about City has been, they've got, I think, possibly the best front three outside of Barcelona in Europe. But I've always had that. But what about someone else other than that front three what about when that front three isn't firing how do they find players like Mary Fowler and Jess Park they're really beginning to do that so Jess Park's coming into the team as a 10 they played Mary Fowler here she's another really good game scored a goal so I think what

City are beginning to do as well as some of those signings from last year are beginning to settle down in defence like Kasper A for example in Alexandria they're finding attackers which I think is really useful for City because I think that's something they haven't had for the last 18 months or so I thought this was a very impressive performance from them

Yeah, on that Chloe Kelly point Susie Heinro on X has asked why she was rested for the second game in a row and whether contract negotiations could actually be a reason. I mean I'd be surprised if that was the case given a player of her quality is at your disposal I think it's probably more of a case of trying new things Mary Fowler had a really really good game against Tottenham in the FA Cup which which, you know, coming into starting line-up after being left out of it for so long, having started a few games a season. And I think it's just a little bit of a fact that seasons are long. Players have played a lot of football. We saw with Lauren Hemp sort of last season

and then going into the World Cup and, you know, having played the Euros as well like she needed a little bit of time to re-find her feet again and find her form again and I think Chloe Kelly needs a bit of rest as well I mean she came straight back from the ACL injury into the Euros and then it's been relentless since like people are going to have like little ebbs and flows in form and being able to rotate and give give some of those players a rest as you go into the business end of the season is quite important. She's also so impactful off the bench as well, as we've seen many a time for England, that that's not necessarily a bad thing, too. So I don't think it's like any kind of indictment of Kelly or the way she's playing. I think it's more, you know, kind of like,

how do we get the best out of this player in the business end of the season? Do they need a break? Have we got a player who's able to step in? Mentioning Lauren Hemp there, Salon, she caught the eye again. Her eighth goal of the season, she set up Mary Fowler for City's second as well.

What have you made of her form this season? She's just fantastic and almost quietly fantastic. I think we kind of, because she's not the biggest personality in women's football, right? I think she kind of, it's a little bit mirrors City's dynamic this season, right? They quietly just produce all of these results, but then aren't getting a lot of fanfare around them. And I think Lauren Hemp is a bit like that.

I thought she was fantastic. She's so integral to their success whether she's crossing into the box for Bunny Shaw or Mary Fowler or she's creating things herself I think her first goal comes from a brilliant pass from Jess Park who as Tim said slotting into that team beautifully you kind of don't think she's going to score it uh Sophie Bagley could probably have done a little bit better but as soon as that floodgate is open then City are just on fire I always thought it was really funny that uh Mary whoever did the team sheet at Brighton was probably absolutely so thankful for the sock gate for whoever's at Arsenal because they're I don't know if anyone saw it but Mary Fowler was down on the team sheet as Mary Flower um and I think they were just sat there going well

at least my administrative error isn't quite as bad as what happened on Friday night so kind of can slide into the background amazing quick one on Brighton Susie they were defensively compact to start with but it was kind of one-way traffic after City found their breakthrough um they just couldn't get their attack going with Elizabeth Turland isolated Lee Hyun-min's late goal pretty much their only shot on target and they've actually only won once in their last 11 league games how much of a worry is that it's a it's a little bit of worry I mean they're leaking goals right I mean even the the win against Bristol City it was what seven three so you know when you concede three to Bristol City you know at the bottom end of the table and then concede four back to back against both Manchester sides there's there's clearly a problem there defensively that you need to work on or with the structure of the team. Can they sort it out?

Potentially. Are they in trouble? Probably not. The gap between them and Bristol is substantial, so they're probably OK. They're eight points above them. But yeah, I would be a little bit concerned going into the business end of the season on the basis of where they are.

Yeah, let's talk Bristol City, shall we? Their 12th defeat despite a battling performance against Manchester United. They lost 2-0 in the end, thanks to a brace from Lisa Nileson, keeping United in the race for fourth. Bristol City manager Lauren Smith praised her team's character and resilience despite defeat.

And they actually did defend really well for the most part. They did show signs of coming back into the game, but then they were reduced to 10 players late on Jamie Lee Napier receiving a second yellow card and Tim the challenge to stay up kind of gets harder and harder every week for the Robins but what can they draw on positively to go into their last six games? I mean on this account we're talking about Brighton, who have the second worst defensive record in the WSL. Bristol have the worst by a long way, conceded 10 more than Brighton, and Brighton's pretty bad. And actually, Bristol City are good at scoring goals.

Their goals scored is kind of charts at about mid-table, but they really can't keep teams out. So what I draw on from this for them is maybe that it was only 2-0 and that the second goal came very, very late, so they stayed in the game. This actually wasn't a very Bristol City game. Usually you see more of that 7-3 that we saw the other week. This was a bit tighter and a bit cager,

and they stayed in it a bit longer. Had they had their full complement of players, I'm sure their game plan revolved around stay in the game try and nick a late goal and probably the sending off stop them from doing that but this this is the first time they haven't scored in five games as well and actually the only teams to stop them scoring are basically the top four so they've got they've got firepower we know that we know they can goals. They need to be more defensively organised. And I'd say this was probably a step in the right direction in that respect. Their run is absolutely vicious as well.

They've got Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Chelsea and Everton. I mean, like the likelihood of them picking up points from any of those is pretty, pretty slim. Oh dear, not looking good. It was a match that United dominated, but they just created very little again. Nielsen coming to their rescue, Salon, basically they had two shots on target. She scored them both, which is, you know, a good return, but she's maybe an unlikely heroine in the course of their season. Definitely. I think, and also the first goal, I think she runs through everyone and then slots it home.

And the second goal, she's completely unmarked in the box and it's kind of, yeah, two lapses in defending from Bristol. And Bristol did have their chances. There was a nice Shania Hales one. It came from a really lovely combination as well.

But when I watch this back, I just re-watched that Jamie Lunopia second yellow a few times and had a real good giggle. Because if you're going to go for a second yellow and try and get sent up, that was brilliant. She just absolutely clatters Jace. And you just, yeah, that was a brilliant challenge to go down, I think. It's just, why not?

Just really take her out. Can I just say as well, one of my favourite moments of the season in this game, I watched it live and Maya Letizia went through one-on-one at one point. And, you know, like the panic when a centre-back is in that situation. In the opposition box. Yeah, exactly. And her brain went to absolute pieces and she tried a backheel.

Even a really elegant ball-playing defender like Maya Letizia, her brain could not compute being one-on-one with a goalkeeper. We've all been there, Tim. I have not. Two left feet. That's it for part one. In part two, we'll round up the rest of the weekend's WSL results and look ahead to the midweek Champions League action. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

Let's stay with the battle for fourth. Liverpool put the misery of their FA Cup exit behind them, seeing off West Ham, ended Liverpool 3, West Ham 1. Matt Beard full of praise for his team after they drew level once again with Manchester United. He said, I think what we've done already is a huge achievement. We're just enjoying the moment. Would you agree with him, Susie? Yeah, I suppose so.

Like, they're doing really well. And I think there's a lot of positives to be taken there. I mean, being neck and neck with United at this stage of the season, points-wise, going into the sort of final furlong is a really positive place for them to be. He's done an incredible job. They're so defensively solid. They've got to welcome, I think, both City and Chelsea.

Their home record is really, really strong. So I think they could actually have a decent say in the title race on the basis of that, which could be really interesting um but yeah like I think you know you wouldn't expect a huge amount more from them um at the start of the season so they've got to be like pretty damn happy with the position they're in and sort of this this kind of final run yeah disappointing for West Ham maybe after they've picked up some some decent points after a very odd season and a difficult start to the season.

But in terms of Liverpool, Leanne Kiernan celebrated St Patrick's Day in style, scoring her first goal of the season. She's had a really torrid time with injury and you could tell exactly what it meant to her and the team. Tim, how much does she add to this Liverpool team? Yeah, she really does. That's been one of Liverpool's strengths. They've got a bit of a diversity of goal scorers and attacking kind of threats. So Shanice van der Sanden, we all know what she's about,

brings that kind of pace and direct running through the middle. And then they've got, I'm sorry, I'm going to butcher the pronunciation of, is it Sophie Hoge? I can't remember how to pronounce it. Apologies to Scandinavian listeners. But with that real kind of physical presence. But yeah, Lian Kiernan's had a really torrid time

and, you know, with the World Cup, with Ireland as well. But Liverpool, because the thing is about Liverpool as well, they're such a hard-working team, particularly from the front. They ask a lot of their front players in terms of closing down. So, you know, and Susie pointed to their home record, but also bringing Missy Boeckens off the bench to score a goal as well. Just having three different goal scorers in this game.

Very, very positive for them because what you usually find with those teams in about fifth, sixth is they just can't score the goals to challenge the top four. But Liverpool they've really got a nice they're a very difficult and horrible team to play against basically and a lot of that's because they're

attackers. Notice how none of us corrected you because I think we're all just as clueless and I have to say it's really disrespectful from my point of view because every single week I butcher her name and I really just should go on Forvo and properly find out how to pronounce it or just ask her directly. That would be the best thing to do. On the other side of Merseyside, Villa got their push for a top six spot back on track with a win over battling Everton. It finished Everton 1, Aston Villa 2.

Both Brian Sorensen and Carla Ward joked pre-match about their respective injury problems, with the Everton boss even bringing a notepad to read out his list of absentees so he didn't forget one. Villa edged the tie with the first goal of the bringing a notepad to read out his list of absentees so he didn't forget one. Villa edged the tie with the first goal of the season for Kenza Dali and a well-taken header from Ebony Salmon. What did you make of both of their performances, Salam? I think I like to see Villa doing well because of last season.

But I just think overall it's a season of underperformance and mediocrity for both of those teams so it wasn't sort of number one on the viewing list for for many people i don't think this weekend i just think with that you know kensadali being back you know massive boost for that team but you've got jordan knobs you've got everybody's happening there rachel daly they really should be performing better uh than scraping Everton, who are one of the weakest teams in the league at the moment, and to only win 2-1. Obviously, they benefited through Everton having a sending off. And Carla Ward was really, really positive at the end by saying that she said they think they completely controlled the game.

But I don't think that's particularly hard against an Everton at home who've only had one home win this season and one shot on target in that game you really think they should be killing it off a bit more so it is what it is with Villa and Everton not my favourite game of the season. No and one of those awkward moments where a player scores and then gets sent off because they competed well Everton but they just don't have that clinical edge in front of goal, do they? But Stenevek scored and then was sent off, which means for a second yellow, by the way, not straight red, but it means that she's going to miss next weekend's Merseyside derby,

which gives her manager another problem to solve, on top of the injury problems that he has to solve, which is very unfortunate. Finally, we move down to London for a preview of next month's FA Cup semi-final. It finished Tottenham 1, Leicester City 0. It was a very tight encounter, this one, between two sides who love to attack,

just the solitary goal. And the game decided in the second minute as well by a brilliant team goal, finished by Mathilde Vinberg on her first WSL start. It was her 21st birthday as well. Happy birthday to you. What a way to celebrate it. Tim, I hate to kind of bring back bad memories,

but the way Tottenham scored that goal, very similar to the one that they scored in the North London derby. Four passes from back to front. Villaham's called it the Tottenham way. What have you made of the Tottenham way this season? Yeah, definitely came from the goalkeeper this time, Becky Spencer. Yeah, I mean, I think there are two kind of overall stats, I guess, that really stick out with Spurs, which tell you what they're about.

More touches in their own penalty box than any other team in the WSL this season. So what does that tell you? They like to pass out from the back. They've also got more successful take-ons leading to a shot. And this is basically because one of the things Tottenham have done really well in the last year or so, they've really upped the amount of craft they have in the final third. Because 18 months ago, it was basically Ashley Neville and a dream in the final third and that was about it and now they've got you know she was injured for this game but Martha Thomas Beth England hasn't scored this season and

we're not talking about it because Tottenham have you know players like Grace Clinton and Bizet as well and Drew Spence came back in for this game and Jessica Naz and they've just got a lot more going forward they've got a lot more craft they've got a lot more goals than they used to have so yeah definitely it's great that they pass out from the back it's great they have that identity but ultimately if you don't have those players going forward then what do you do you pass to the center circle and go nowhere so yeah really positive for Tottenham I think they're really I think they're really building something very interesting yeah I wanted to give Tottenham some love I feel like they deserve it.

And I think I just also love when you get to a point where you're like, that is some villain ham footy. You know, when you're like, oh, there's an identity and a style being built here. And it's actually a really good one to watch when they crack it.

I thought Becky Spencer was amazing. She started the goal. Not only her distribution, I think she does a triple save at one point in that game. She captains the side. You can see something's building and it's like clicking for them.

And I think they've been, it's kind of been long overdue for Spurs. You want Spurs to be doing well. I do anyway. Sorry, Susie and Tim might not. And I really rated in his press conference, his interview after the game where he was like, you know, is there a risk of you giving away

how you're going to play in the FA Cup semi-final? And he was like, no, not really. We just want to show everyone how good we are and be the best at how we play. So he has no worries about that. And the joy in him of when you score a goal like that and it kind of pulls off. And you've done it twice. So it is clearly something you're really trying to do. There's a lot of satisfaction in that.

So I do think Spurs deserve their props. Leicester did have their chances as well, but just couldn't make them count. So we'll have to see what they can bring for the FA Cup semi-final, which, by the way, is going to be played at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Can't wait for that one. Let's look at the Championship, shall we? Continued to bring the drama this weekend. An action-packed schedule throwing up plenty of surprises. Shock defeats for two of the

title contenders as well. Crystal Palace and Sunderland were beaten by Sheffield United and London City, respectively. Southampton kept up the chase with a dominant victory over Reading, while Charlton brought three points back from Durham, meaning the top four are still separated by just one point. I bloody love this league. Birmingham remain in touch as well. There's a fierce relegation battle going on too. Lewis opened up a four-point cushion with a vital win over bottom-placed Watford. Two go down this year, though,

so they've still got their work cut out to stay in the league. It's turning into such a fascinating season. I absolutely love it. Mathematically, listen to this. This is bonkers. Mathematically, probably improbably, Reading, who are currently in 10th, could still win the league. I mean, that's ridiculous.

I want to switch to being in a championship pod for a few weeks just for the fun of it because it's so good. We have to. Honestly, it needs more cut. We only have a certain amount of time every single week and every single because it's so good. We have to honestly it needs more cut we only have a certain amount of time every single week and every single week I feel like we're never able to give it enough time and how many times Susie have you and I said we're going to do a championship special because we really need to because it's such a brilliant brilliant league. Have you seen the fixtures on the final day as well because a lot of those teams are

playing each other so oh I should have had them up in front of me. But basically, I think Charlton are playing, Palace playing, basically the top four, I think, are playing each other. So, yeah, there's the final day. I think you're going to have a situation where probably three teams can win the league, quite probably. That's dreams, isn't it? Absolute dreams. Not for the teams involved, obviously very, very stressful,

but for a neutral, very exciting. Let's turn our attention to Europe, shall we? The Champions League quarterfinals get underway this week. Susie, you're in Amsterdam for Chelsea's away leg against Dutch side Ajax. Very funky looking hotel room you're in currently. 34,200 tickets sold for tonight's game at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Ajax have already taken the scalps there of Bayern Munich, Roma and PSG in this UEFA Women's Champions League campaign. What are you expecting from the match tonight? I mean, you think it'd be a comfortable win for

Chelsea, right? Like given the form they're in, how dominant they are, how well-versed they are in European football. But on the basis of Ajax's record in the group stage and how they've turned the Johan Cruyff into a real fortress, I think they've had 50,000 Ajax across their three group games. You can't take anything away from them. They're a really great side. They've got some amazing young talent. Emma Hayes took the time to praise

16-year-old Lily Johannes before the game at the Matchday Minus One press conference, who has just been phenomenal. And, you know, a 16 is playing in the centre of midfield for a, you know, top European side. So, you know, huge talent talent there and then they've got um

it's a cardinal at the back who i remember seeing her play against arsenal um for iacs and thinking wow she's a real talent she's only 18 and she um was out in marbella playing for the dutch under 23s against england and i was watching her there and thinking, she is a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant footballer. So it's not going to be an easy game for Chelsea by any stretch, but with the quality they've got with Lauren James on the side, you would obviously expect it to be a slightly routine win for them, but you can't undersell this Ajax side too much either. In the other quarterfinals this week, Benfica host Lyon,

Hakan face PSG and Barcelona travel to Bran. Look, it is only the first leg salon, but are you expecting it to be straightforward for Lyon, PSG and Barcelona? Definitely not PSG. I'm really backing Hakan. I want this an underdog, well, kind of an underdog narrative to come through. But for Lyon, for Barca, yes, I'm seeing that as a routine game for them this week.

Excellent. The 2024 NWSL kicked off this weekend in the US before all the league action got underway. Casey Stoney's San Diego Wave took home the Challenge Cup. They beat Gotham 1-0 thanks to Alex Morgan's 88th minute header. On Saturday, Kansas City Current made a thrilling start at their new home, the CPKC Stadium, holding off a North Carolina Courage comeback to win 5-4.

Current's Alex Pfeiffer became the youngest goalscorer in NWSL history at 16 years and 4 months. Meanwhile, Racing Louisville and Orlando Pride played out a 2-2 draw. Assisat Oshuala

made history on Sunday as well, scoring the first ever goal for Bay FC in their 1-0 victory over Angel City. And Laura Harvey's Seattle Reign

beat Washington Spirit thanks to a penalty from Benethit Bulker. Women's Football Weekend is coming up as well and I just want to give a bit of a nod to Tier 6 Brentford who are playing at the G-Tech Stadium on

Sunday at 3 o'clock against Ashmount Lee. Really big game for them because they're at the top of the league hoping to secure promotion. They're also looking to break the record for the attendance in the stadium for a women's game 5100 is the number at the moment so big shout out to them who else are we shouting out for over women's football weekend what are you looking forward to tim yeah as someone who lives precisely equidistant between london city lionesses and charlton. They play one another in the Championship this weekend,

albeit at the Valley. And Charlton have been playing a lot of their games at the Valley this year because I think if they come up, they're going to have to play there permanently. So they've been building really, really well. Disappointing season for London City Lionesses, but a real local grudge match, given that the grounds that they usually play at,

you could walk between them in about an hour, basically. So a little bit of a local derby there with lots of really, I think, WSL quality players on show as well. Salon, what are you looking forward to? Well, mine's not actually on the pitch. I'm up in Manchester today. We're doing, I've been working with Manchester United

through a company that I run with two mates called In Motion, where we're running an international women's day in advance of Women's Football Weekend Summit. We've got Nikki Ducey. We're talking like a lot around kind of what makes women's football special in this country and in this era of growth. What is it that we want to protect

and what is it that we want to grow and innovate? So yeah, we've got some really special people. I said Nikki we've got um Leah Galton and her partner in conversation which will be a really special kind of angle particularly in the in the week's comments what we talked about earlier um and then we've got you know sessions on fan culture youth brands performance Siobhan Chamberlain's doing some stuff so uh that is probably what I'm looking forward to the most. Oh, that sounds wonderful. I look forward to

hearing how that went. Susie, what are you looking forward to? I'm going to be slightly cliched and say Everton-Liverpool. I think that could be a really, really

tasty tie. Obviously, Everton missing a lot of players, but you can't write them off. They're performing relatively well despite that and Liverpool

on form. So I actually think the Manchester derby is going to be fairly straightforward. So I'm actually more interested in the Merseyside one. Excellent. Listen, before we go, a couple of questions from social media. Another piece of news that broke on Monday, Tim,

the fact that Arsenal will be heading over to Australia for an exhibition match to play the A-League women all-stars on the 24th of May. That is just three days before players are required to report to camp for international duty, by the way. There's a lot of club country to-ing and fro-ing at the moment and questions over loading, which is what Lucy wants to know. Tim, given the concerns around player loading, what do we think about this decision? Yeah, it's tempting to think of this as, well, not quite a tournament-free summer because of the Olympics, but a lot of players won't be going to tournaments. But there are international fixtures in June and July. Well done, whoever put that together. Lovely work.

Yeah, listen, on one hand, you can say it's great for women's football, that Arsenal women in particular are seen as such a draw, particularly with their three Australian players that this is this is something that Arsenal think is viable for them on the other hand I mean yeah loading wise environment wise probably not that smart also I think with men's players when they do these pre-season tours if they're honest privately they probably hate the travelling, but they get paid millions of pounds. So of course you eat it and do it. Whereas women's players don't get paid millions of pounds yet.

So I do think it's quite concerning. And it's definitely a question I have pegged to ask Jonas Eidevoud at the next press conference on Friday. Yeah, I'm sure he will give a very diplomatic Arsenal manager response to that rather than maybe his true feelings on it. Solon, I did see you tweet the other day, 7-0, clean sheet, 500 plus, very noisy fans, singing about South London Hills, title race on, do it all again next weekend. Nag has asked whether we're going to see Dulwich Hamlet

in the FA Women's National League next season. If it was up to me, yes. But unfortunately, our fate hinges in the hands of Dartford women. So if Dartford women drop any points, then it's really on. We are three points behind. We have to win every single game they also do could come down to goal difference at the end of the season and so a seven nil win in the bank was very special and it was honestly something beautiful is building at that football club and

it is such a privilege to play for Dalit Chamlet because playing in tier five in front of 500 plus fans all singing and chanting on a sunny day is beautiful so we are at home for the next few games so please do come down if you're around because I'm not having Brentford in tier six hold the record for I don't think we'll get 5,000 so we're going to need more and more people down at Dulwich please. Brilliant that is your call to action everyone. Tim it's been a pleasure. That is your call to action, everyone. Tim, it's been a pleasure. My pleasure as always. Thanks for having me. Salon, enjoy the weekend and I look forward to hearing all about the conference.

Oh, thanks, Faye. Susie, I've only just seen that you are on brand with your Guardian sweatshirt. Oh yeah, always on brand. Very nice. I love that t-shirt because there's a brilliant 90s photo, I think, of Andy Burnham wearing exactly the same t-shirt. And he's got a tan and it's shot on film and he's wearing the Black Guardian t-shirt. And honestly, it's quite an iconic photo of Andy Burnham. That's all I'm seeing from you this morning, Susie. You've really put me off my fashion choices this week. No, I've always wanted one. I've always wanted one because of that photo of Andy Burnham. So you've just made me want one more. I'll put a photo up on social media

and you can see what Susie's wearing. She'll take royalties from The Guardian for it, I think, if you buy them from the shop. That's not a plug, by the way, to buy them from the shop because I'd get in trouble for that. Anyway, keep having your say by sending in your questions via x or emailing us at womensfootballweekly at theguardian.com and as ever a reminder to sign up for our bi-weekly women's football newsletter all you need to do is search moving the goalposts sign up just to let you know in Tuesday's edition Ella Braidwood

takes a look at Bran ahead of meeting Barcelona in the Champions League. And on Thursday, Swedish international Magda Eriksson is back to talk about her return from injury. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray. Music composition was by Laura Iredale. Our executive producer is Salah Ahmad. I'm at. Thank you. and Pixel 8 Pro are fast and secure, with the most advanced Pixel cameras yet. And Google AI powers amazing features for photos and video, so you can get even closer to the game. Search Google Store to find out more.

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