The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - Spurs smash seven past Villa and Chelsea get back on track: Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Sophie Downey and Sanny Rudravajhala to reflect on the weekend’s WSL games and much more

This is The Guardian. Hello, I'm Faker Others and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Just the 22 goals in the WSL to discuss. Ten of them witnessed at Villa Park. Manchester City didn't quite hit seven like spurs, but six was enough to sink Lester. We'll talk weather, Serena Vigman's England squad, plus we'll take your questions,

and that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Susie Rack, how are you? I'm good, and I'm on half term, so I'm running around to and from the Panthers. to mine every 30 seconds, but today is final day. And is the Panto going well? It is brilliant. I cannot praise the writer and director of a Teresa enough. She is a bit of a local legend here, and the script is incredible and she's written all the songs for it and it is funny, satirical. It is like a really good show. Amazing. Sof Downey, how are you doing?

I am good, thank you. Yes. Very bright and early today. That's not my normal time. time zone so I know I'm sorry it's totally my fault sannie rudidavadula doesn't matter what time of the day it is is always in peak performance and uh and happy it doesn't matter that it's 7 30 a m how are you yeah well right thanks last time i was on it was at 630 in the morning so i was oh yeah nice nice late start you know i should be right now at solford uni ready for a nine o'clock lecture uh and i got in a car I got all my stuff ready to go and the windscreen was frosted over. So after this, I'm going to hastily do that and just hurtle down the motorway

and hope that at the speed limit and hope that there's no traffic because, yeah, it is half-term. Listen, don't lull yourself into a false sense of security with that. I got stuck on the M-25 for hours yesterday. I had also been thinking, oh, it's half-term. This should be relatively straightforward. Not so. Anyway, I mean, it certainly wasn't straightforward at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon. and that's where we're going to start, this kind of 10-goal mayhem that went on.

I don't think I've ever seen a scoreline that bonkers. Spurs hit seven against Aston Villa. It was their ninth win of the season, which means that they're now level on points with force-placed Arsenal. Important to note, though, the gunners have two games in hand. But it finished Aston Villa three, Tottenham Hotspur, seven. So much to digest from this one, Susie. How do you even begin to dissect? it. I mean, who needs defenders, right? Like, let's just like play all out attack and push everyone

into the opposition half and not give a crap about the ball calling coming the other way. It made me think of World Seven games where it is just that sort of backwards and forwards constantly. The defending left a huge amount to be desired. Astinville in particular, that when you come back to three, two down, to then concede for is unforgivable, really. And to have that level of complacency when it comes to second balls and balls into the box, I think there's a real big problem, basically. Lez-faire attitude, perhaps, would be a good explanation. 25 they've conceded in their last six.

But let's focus on spurs before we look at their defensive problems, Villa. It felt like this on the opposite side, Sannie, was Spur's best attacking performance under Martin Ho so far. What did they get so right in terms of their setup and then application of it? Well, I mean, yeah, offensively they were very good. I mean, scored seven goals. But when you do drill down into the numbers and the XG, it was only what, 2.3, just shy of that. I think Villa did kind of allow them, yeah, a lot of opportunities. and we might have a conversation about Ellie Roebuck in a bit.

But you think of Spurs' last few games as well, that they have really kind of up the ante. I know Olivia Holt, I think she went off injured at half time in this one, but she's been doing really well. So I guess it's kind of been waiting for it to click, right? And Martin Ho has had some great results so far as Spurs boss, but maybe kind of still wanting to step out of the shadow of being Mark Skinner's number two.

I think really seeing it, albeit against the villa side who have repeatedly now had these sorts of score lines, Well, not these sorts of scorelines. This was another level of scoreline. But yeah, you know, it's that club that's just below the tier that everyone wants to be in, right? And it's whether they are kind of getting there. And yeah, well, you're seeing a lot.

But I just find it a bit hard to kind of really nail my flag to the mast when the scorelines against that villa side. Four straight defeats, 25 conceded in their last six games. That's really poor. We've spoken about the pressure that Natalia Arroyo is under, but can you start to begin to think where it's gone wrong? It doesn't all land with her. No, I think the players are pretty passive at the moment.

You can see they were pretty static. There wasn't a lot of movement when they had the ball. I think Natalia Roy likes to try and play direct football, so she likes to try and get the ball from back to front as quickly as possible. And unless you're really, like, technical with that, it can lead to like a high risk of turnovers. And if you misplace the passes, then it's, yeah, can cause a bit of chaos. And I think you expose the back line to so much threat in that respect.

And you could see that spurs when they were coming forward were just outnumbering them in that midfield area because they were hitting them on the turnover and stuff like that. I would say you just need to remember the context as well. There's been quite a few injuries at Aston Villa. Lucia Kendall's been out for a while. She's a big part of what they've been doing this season. Mr. Burrne's has been out. another one that Natalia has relied on a lot.

Rachel Daly isn't there. I think Rachel Daly adds a lot in terms of in front of goals that we all know about, but she also adds like defensive structure and leadership, which is maybe, you know, a huge part of what is missing in terms of defending from the front. So there are various issues that might be fixed over time that need to be looked at. I still believe she needs to be given time there. She needs to have a few windows to develop the squad that she needs to play the football that she wants. Beyond the injuries, obviously the injury to Rachel Daly,

is a big one, but they've not really got like an out and out nine that can come in and replace her. So they need at least two centre forwards brought in, in my opinion. But I'd like to see Royo be given more time. I, you know, having spoken to her, interacts with her, like, really like her, not just as a person, but as a manager. She speaks really well to, you know, kind of what they want to do and what the project is. So you'd like to see her be given that much time. But I think the, you know, it's always really, really hard if a manager who loses a dressing room at any point. And if that stage comes, then a club kind of has to take action. But at the same time, whether she will have done, given the injuries they've got,

and the situation they sort of know they're in in that sense is a big if. Listen, we covered Chelsea's turbulent week with Paul Green's departure last week, but they've got back-to-back wins now, hard-fought 2-0 victory over a Liverpool side that have been really resurgent over the last few weeks. Shukunushkin on the score sheet, giving them the lead just before half time. Lauren James, they're making sure of the victory with one of her trademark finishes. It means that their Champions League hopes are still alive, Sani. Sonja Bonpastor talked about how it had been an emotional week in the wake of Paul Green's departure.

Was it a question of just finding a way to get the result over the line with this game? Well, I think that the fact that Lauren James, for now at least, shakes what the ankle injury from the summit. I think, you know, Chelsea, a completely different proposition when she's, she's there. And it does feel like there's a different level of confidence in the stands, let alone on the pitch when she's on the pitch. And yeah, the goals he score was just, was typical. It's exactly the sort of player you want coming back into your side when you have had some wobbles. And it's funny because these players aren't used to that, right? These players are used to never losing. It's like, you know, how resilient is one if you never experience negativity?

I mean, there have been a couple of players I haven't quite maybe performed us we might have wanted them to coming in. The problem with this game is, by the way, the angle that it's on, it just makes you think back to the game that was postponed with the frozen pitch. I can't get that image out of my head

every single time. The blue and the red down at King's Meadow. That was a long time ago. It was, but I just, I don't know why. You need new images in your head. It's like committed into my brain. I'm kind of expecting him to just fall over.

But that was more, that was more, down towards Brighton's game maybe or. But anyway, yeah, yeah. So I think Lauren James going back is a huge, huge plus. And I think that alone, hopefully will, will alleviate things a little bit for Bon Pastor. You know, you talk about good talkers and people who are really kind of good with the media and stuff. She's another one, isn't she? Yeah, she certainly is. We'll talk about Brighton and Arsenal's postponement a little bit later on. And, you know, Lauren James getting her first 90 minutes of the season. And in such an influential manner is really important, Susie, actually, because of her fitness issues.

But obviously, Chelsea overall, in terms of their attacking fitness issues, have been a real problem. You've still got Sam Kerr not fully fit. Aggie Beaver Jones as well. Mara Ramirez out. It's been a problem for them. Yeah, huge. It's a difficult situation to be in. But when you have Lauren James come back and decide, as Sani said,

like suddenly things look a whole lot brighter because she's a player who just delivers next level ability. But yeah, it's a massive issue. And I think it means that there struggles this season have to be taken with a little bit of a pinch of salt. You know, obviously they've had behind-the-scenes issues, off-field issues. Paul Green going is, you know, I'd say to all accounts from anyone in the,

women's set up all the women's game generally a massive, massive blow to things. And, you know, the fact that they haven't sort of gone big. As again, we sort of said last week to bring in sort of more potency up front when you've got Myra Ramirez so injury prone at the moment, when you've got Sam Kerr still returning, when you've got Aggie Beaver Jones still developing and, you know, picking up injuries. Yes, Alyssa Thompson came in. But like, in terms of sort of the number that.

are either out through injury or slow to come back through injury. It's been difficult for them to find much creative outlet up front. The good thing now is that when Lauren James comes in, she plays like all of those roles. Well, yeah, but then you've got to manage her minutes because she's had so many injuries and taken quite a while to get back. So that's going to be an interesting way that Sonia Bonpastor is going to have to manage. quick one on Liverpool, Sof, because they did give a good test, and we've seen a real

resurgence in their form the last few weeks, and you can tell that because Garretel Taylor looked so disappointed after the game, and they didn't really make the most out of key moments that were there for the taking. What positives can he take away from this performance? I think it can take a lot. I actually was surprised when I looked at the stats, because the stats didn't tell me what I was seeing on the pitch. It felt quite different. They're like, the fact they had such a low XG or not as many chances. It felt like they were really in the game for much of the, especially the first half and good parts of the second half, they were creating good chances.

They had the first real chance of the game. They had a goal that's allowed for handball. It was really unfortunate for her. She just kind of, it just bubbled in the wrong way, but otherwise it was a definite goal. They were pushing Chelsea back. They're so well organised at the moment. They had the kind of real discipline about them.

I think they're driven by Kerry Holland, who has this role where she's a real lead with a team. She's a fabric of Liverpool Football Club. She's been there so long. And she kind of guides them forward and drives them forward with her energy. And yeah, it's just about being clinical in those key moments, taking those chances when they come to you against a team like Chelsea. And I think we saw it last week when Chelsea played Spurs as well, especially in that first half, they came under a lot of pressure. They had chances against him. And the next step for these sides is just being able to take those chances when they come. because Chelsea go won one down

and it could be the same story but it could also be a different story you never know. So I think he said before the game that it's not going to define his season. He kind of rode that back afterwards a little bit. He said to me, I don't really remember saying that

because he was, I think, a bit upset in the moment, but I think it won't define their season. They're looking really positive at the moment. Things are on the up. They're going into the Merseyside Derby next week in the FA Cup with a big chance to get through. A lot of energy around the team, a lot of good feeling and it's not going to be disrupted by this result.

Yeah, you're right. Good energy around the Manchester United team at the moment as well. Their noses just in front in the race for Champions League qualification. It was a comeback when they needed in the end over London City lionesses, though. Nikita Paris had put the visitors in front but against her former side, but goals from Jess Park and Millie Turner saw Mark Skinner's team recover to claim all three points. That is a seventh straight win as well. came on the back of an important midweek victory over Athletico Madrid and the Champions League as well. This is what he had to say.

To use a Manchester term, I'm absolutely buzzing. I won't do the accent. I'm so happy for the team and everyone behind the scenes as well, but particularly the players. It's not easy to come off the pitch after we played midweek against Athletico, get back at 4 a.m. and produce a winning performance today. London City made it very difficult for us, but I just believe this team will always find a way. And it certainly feels like that at the minute, Sannie, doesn't it? It wasn't pretty at all.

And some fans were unhappy. That's the nature of being a Manchester United fan, I think, regarding the performance. But the result, in terms of Champions League football, is really all that matters. I think the thing Mark Skinner has been needing for a long time now is that depth. And he's been backed with individuals, but now it just feels like he's had that time to build a squad. And that's the thing. And I think this applies across the WSL, right? you know we're talking about giving Natalia Royo time and Susie mentioned about just, you know,

need to bring those players in. The league is so much smaller that the amount of time you get with those players to actually play is shorter as well. So it's taken a bit of time for Skinner to get a squad that he can really confidently take a player out and put somebody else in and it works okay. Like Elizabeth Turlin's been in and out of the side and then every time she's either on the bench, she seems to get a goal. And then when she gets a start, she seems to do okay as well. and then she's taken out the firing line and someone else is thrown in. So, yeah, I think they're really positive.

I think United fans who are complaining. Like, I get it. Lee Sports Village is not, like, conducive to the best atmosphere, but then that's a wider thing and the kickoff time's being horrible and the journey to get to Lee itself makes it terrible. There was that period where there were United fans really unhappy with Mark Skinner

and not happy with how, like, last season went. And there was a point where he kind of like, I was a bit like, yeah, I can see this. And you're hearing, like, the management speak. And you're doing your post-match interviews, and it kind of kind of glazed over. And I feel like he's kind of got a bit past that as well. Like, I think when you talk to him, it does feel a bit more, it just feels a bit more genuine. And I don't know if that comes across with the players as well.

But overall, like, they've got a really nice vibe. Dare we mention a tactical timeout? Or have we, or has that been done to death over the past couple of years? And we have spoken about it at length on this pod before. And, you know, that there are things. being done. But how you police it is very difficult, I think. Hedermeystra maybe needed a tactical timeout at some point,

just to say, please score some goals, team, because he thought that they deserved more from the game, London City. But this was their second straight defeat in a game where they created more than their opponents. So why are they not, why are they lacking this clinical edge at the minute? I think teething problems under Edda. I think he's coming. Obviously, it's only his first block of games.

Big surprise when Droslyn Pressure got sacked over Christmas. Probably disrupted behind the scenes a little bit as well because they weren't performing badly under Jocelyn. I think it's also first season syndrome. You're going to go up and you're going to go down and not everything's going to go your way in terms of your form, right? You're going to be a bit inconsistent. I guess where the surprises is they've got a lot of experience in that team.

so you would expect them to be able to bring it through in terms of like the key to Paris or Danielle LeVandadonk and players like that who have experienced the absolute high pressure moments on the world stage and that you could think they could add to that experience but I think it will come I think the fact that they're creating chances

will mean it's not a big worry for them they're not going to challenge the top this season but that was never going to happen right they should be happy I don't know if they will be happy, but they should be happy with a sixth, seventh position finish. See how that goes. That's a good stable start in a division where, you know, you've just come in, you've brought in 17 new players plus.

It's going to take a bit of time. And it's about building over the summer for next year. Someone else still going is Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Radcliffe, getting his spade out, digging his holes. We've got to talk about these comments that he made, making headlines for controversial reasons, not the first time. Rackcliffe told Sky News last week that the UK had been colonised by immigrants. You can't have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,

he said. I mean, the UK's been colonised. It's costing too much money. As you would expect, it's caused uproar across the game and beyond. The club issued a statement saying the Manchester United prides itself on being an inclusive and welcoming club. Mark Skinner had his say on it. From my perspective, we're so entrenched in football at the minute, don't have time to breathe. We're obviously aware the club have made a statement. I'm sure we'll catch up on it in the next few days. My head's down in the trenches with all the work we've got on. I'm sure at some point we'll have to look at it. I mean, what else is he supposed to say in that instance when it's a co-owner coming out and saying it? The FAA's legal team, by the way,

are investigating to see if he's brought the game into disrepute. There was a half apology that came from Sir Jim Radcliffe later on. Choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe and he added it was important to raise the issue of controlled and well-managed immigration and maintain an open debate. Susie, I'm sure you've got something to say on this. Yeah, I have a lot to say

as I'm sure many, many people do. I mean, hugely infuriating for many people, not least, Manchester United fans, which has such a rich history of diversity of inclusion of incredible overseas players, of a huge global fan base. And it's just such an antithesis of everything that Manchester United stands for and that Manchester stands for as well, right? Like, you know, you look at from Alex Ferguson to Eric Cantanar,

as people who would probably kind of be absolutely raging at these kind of comments to the fact that this is the city where, you know, Frederick Engels wrote the conditions of the working class in England and things like that. These are, you know, this is a city built on solidarity and struggle and working class unity, not going after the lowest common denominator in society, some of the most vulnerable people in the world, right? The fact that he himself is an immigrant, he lives in Monaco to avoid paying an estimated $4 billion in tax. That is the problem that the UK has, not immigration, in my opinion.

When you look at the two sides at the moment, when Manchester played Athletico on Thursday night, a Swede, a Norwegian and a French woman scored their goals. Three immigrants, you know, as it were, playing for the team and scoring the goals and getting the win that is looking likely to have got them into the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Their teams are based on the benefits that foreign players bring to the league and bringing them in and they all pay their taxes and they're all on-pay-P-A-Y-E. They're all, you know, contributing massively to our society in many different forms. And it's just so short-sighted when I hear these arguments.

It just feels so, yeah, so frustrating. Yeah, without a doubt. I'm sure that debate is going to rumble on and it'll be really interesting to see how it's swept under the carpet or whether it keeps coming back up again. That's it for part one of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. In part two, we're going to wrap up the rest of the Barker's WSL action. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

Manchester City returned to winning ways in style with the victory over Leicester at home on Friday night. Six goals they scored to no reply, thanks to a brace from Vivian Miramar and goals from Bunny Shore, Ui Hasagawa, Carolyn and Iober Fugino. Just a dominant performance all round, Susie, wasn't it? One of the most complete, perhaps,

in terms of an attacking sense that we've seen from City this season? Yeah, I mean, hard to say, because they've had so many, right? Like, you know, you look at the game against Chelsea where they ripped them apart and given the context of that, that game in the title race and things like that, you could say that that maybe was the most complete. But there's just been so many. It was hugely impressive again. And you would expect them to do that to a certain extent against Leicester.

But the way they were given sort of so much space in the box, you know, I think of Bunny Shore and Fiv Midmer's headers for the first and the third goals. Like they don't even have to jump. They're given all the space in the world. they're basically unmarked. The fact that it happens once, yes, but you can't give, you know, really strong number nine type players that kind of time and space in the box.

Lauren Hemp was allowed to basically run the show on the wing. No one kind of really tried to close her down and prevent those balls into the box. Like it was just a phenomenally aggressive attacking performance and Lester's defence. both should have done better but also, you know, it shows the gap in quality as well.

Yeah. Last week's defeat to Arsenal, obviously, Sani raised the question about how Andre Yaglerts' side would respond to a rare setback. But, I mean, look, you can't compare Arsenal to Leicester, no offence, and I hate it when people say this as well,

no offence, whilst also causing offence to Leicester fans, saying no offence to Leicester fans, However, you know what I mean. You can't compare them really. But do you think we've learned anything new about their mentality? All right. Well, on the mentality front, Viviana Medemar doesn't seem to celebrate goals anymore. So maybe she's just like quick, get the ball and restart.

I know she's like, you haven't done for quite a while. Yeah. Is that showing her ruthless aggression to a whole new level? Like she's scoring so many goals. She doesn't even feel anymore. But is that what you need, you know, to prevent any sort of goal difference situation like a couple of years ago. Yeah, I don't know.

We learned too much more. The roofless aggression, we've already seen repeatedly, actually, you know, going back to the Villa game before the break, West Ham, you know, obviously the Chelsea game as well, but I guess that's a different sort of level. So, yeah, I don't know if we saw any more aggression. I think what we did see is there are so many players now willing to step up. I mean, Carolyn's goal, what, the fifth goal, like, it on, incredible hit, and she's been on a great runner form as well. There's such a wider range

of players who are able to step up that it really is quite frightening. And yeah, you've got to feel for Rick Passmore and Lester. It's not really anything you can do, right? I guess it's just can you show heart and determination? And, you know, the conversation, by the way, around Lester, unfortunately, might also bring in the men's side. I think looking at the reports, if the men's team are relegated and the financial hit there is going to hit the whole club and that that will have a knock on effect. But yeah, it's a weird season with the whole non-relegation and then the playoff situation. It has meant everyone can kind of just, I don't know, I'd look to like hear from whether the, I mean, the players would never admit it, but at what point

does it kind of make you think, all right, well, we'll chalk this one off and we're going to take a thought off the gas now. I don't know if that's really a thing. But you know what I mean? like if you know you get not going to get outright relegated and the clubs are kind of have that somewhere in the back of the mind how does that impact what's going on in the pitch is that why we're kind of seeing some teams get completely rolled over because it's only a point difference between lester and liverpool anyway yeah we've we've kind of discussed this this is it is a strange strange season um without a doubt Rick passmore called it a free hit I mean well there you go yeah I mean I know why he would have said that but you know they are 12th

and it does look difficult for them at the minute. What can they take from the encounter, if anything? So, by the way, just in case anybody didn't know what Sannie was referring to there, Lester City's men's team, who play in the championship, have just been docked six points for financial regulation issues for when they were in the Premier League, just as a reminder. So, sorry. Well, I think they can look at the first 20 minutes at the game and be quite happy.

They hit the bar or the post. they missed an open goal. They had chances and where they could have gone one, two up. But, you know, as we said before in the Chelsea Liverpool game, it's about taking those chances when they come, because they're going to come few and far between against these big sides, these more experienced sides. And if you can take that opportunity and turn it to 1-0,

who knows what happens after the defeat to Arsenal. All probability says, and all statistics say that Manchester City would have gone on to win the game anyway. That's just where they are at at the moment in terms of the two sides. but put the cat in amongst the pigeons and you never know what's going to happen. So he'll look at that first 20 minutes and be quite pleased, I think.

They'll look at those small moments of positives, I think. But I think also for less, they need to remember, you know, Chelsea lost 5'1 to Manchester City. Yes, it looks really bad and is a bad score, but they've conceded one more than Chelsea. So hold on to that positive, as he will, I guess. And for them, I do get where he said it was a free hit. These games against the top four,

the one against Manchester United last week. they're not expecting to come away with any points from those. It's trying to test yourself against the very best in the league. They weren't able to do so against a steam train joggernaut that is city at the moment. They've now got, what, a month off, a lot of time on the training field. I know he'll lose a few players because of international break and stuff, but he's got some time now to really bedden his ideas and try and get them going for the second half, you know, the next block of the season.

And they've got Liverpool to come, so that's a really, really important game. Everton and third win on the bounce, narrow 1-0 victory over West Ham. Hanoko Hayashi scoring the only goal of the game in the 8th minute. And that means the toffies are up to 8th, actually. Things change so quickly in football, Susie. Everton looking a little bit more comfortable and rosy than just a couple of weeks ago. How much do you think that's down to the change in manager? Yeah, I think when things are going well, obviously morale can deteriorate, dressing rooms can be lost, that kind of thing.

I think that a section of the dressing room had been lost a little bit by Brian Sorenson at Everton and that was taking its toll and it's a really difficult place to dig yourself out of. But a refresh, like regardless of whether it's a long term or a short term one, can make a difference, at least initially, as we know, like the new manager bounce, blah, blah, blah. I think the run of fixtures that they've had has meant that they've been able to really build up a little bit of momentum in that obviously the three, back-to-back wins has meant that they've picked up more points in the last three games than they had across the course of the rest of the season prior to that, which is obviously huge and has pulled them eight points away from bottom, which when you've got Arsenal, United and Chelsea in the last section of the season, you need to be kind of picking up points in this block and they've done that super effectively. And then you look at sort of the period

that they had just before Christmas where they lost a city, They had that bad game against West Ham, which they lost three one, and they lost to Chelsea and Arsenal. And then their first game back in January is City again. So they had four of the five games they played up to that City game at the start of January was against the top three. So like really, really tough ask for them. And so to then switch it around at this point when they've got this easier run of fixtures,

I think is really significant and sets them up really nicely. I mean, like, they should be safe. I mean, the table is a little bit all over the shop, and it feels like results change every single week, but based on sort of what they've done in these pass-free games, they've basically secured their safety as far as I'm concerned. And they change every week at West Ham. I mean, they didn't at the beginning of the season.

They were very consistent, consistently losing. But actually, they controlled more of the possession in this game at the weekend, created the same number of chances as Everton, but only tested Courtney Brosnan twice. which I can see, Sani, that Rita Guarino is going to be pretty frustrated that they can build on the high of last week's comeback win. Yeah, didn't she say she kind of takes a bit of the blame for that as well in a post-match interview? I mean, she's a bit like, I mean, Scott Veland came in at Everton and said, like, the first thing he was going to do was like instill a bit of belief. And Guarino seems to have done that, you know, Shakira Martinez and, a say,

you know, both did really well. But I guess my only alarm bell, I mean, you know, this is a disappointing result. But remember that the game before this was where he went two-nill down to Brighton and he needed three goals with like seven minutes to go. So the signs are there that there's that fragility. And I guess it's going to be up to her to kind of pick them up and dust them down again. I mean, when they're playing Brighton again, aren't the NFA Cup after that? And then a really difficult run with United Arsenal and then probably a massive game against London City as far as. where they might finish in the table goes.

But yeah, it's very difficult for them, I guess, as it is for all the teams down there at the moment, right? Yeah, without a doubt. Look, we need to talk about postponements because the weather predictably caused havoc across English football this weekend, this country, if you're listening abroad at the minute. We're very much stuck under a rain cloud, I think it's fair to say. Every single time you go outside, you know, Mac.

And at the minute, I think we're expected to hit some some icy temperatures this week additionally. It's not been much fun, but some teams across the top two tiers don't play in their main stadia, as we know, so postponements obviously more inevitable, but I think many of us were perhaps surprised that Brighton Arsenal was cooled off at 1 o'clock

when it was due to kickoff at 2.30. In WSL2, Ips, which is 2pm game against Sheffield United was postponed at 1240. Sunderland's encounter with Nottingham Forest was called off the day before, but just a week ago they came under criticism for postponing their fixture against Shuffle United just an hour before kickoff. You know, we can't change the weather, Sophie, but you can understand the annoyance of the fans and the timing, you know, perhaps needs to be improved. Yeah, I think that's a frustration, right, is that those calls

were coming so late. And a friend of the pod, Tim Stillman, did make a very passionate plea for the reason why Brighton was left so late. And I do get the reasons, like, not taking the cuff of the pitch and leaving exposed to the elements, and you can't check it a bit earlier. But I do think, I mean, any of us have been to Crawley in the last five, six years, know what that pitch is like when it rains. Like, pretty much driving past it on Sunday, I was like, that game isn't going to get ahead.

In this weather, it just kind of felt inevitable. Those sidelines get so many puddles on them. It's just ridiculous and it's just unplayable. I do think you can be a bit proactive when fans are travelling and I know people are saying well Arsenal's not that far but you've got to think that Arsenal fans aren't just based in London right Arsenal fans do come from far and wide to travel to games and to give them an hour and a half notice when they had to navigate

the English transport system in that weather not always the easiest the train system and the cost as well I think people forget about that to fans as well you know they've all paid their train tickets to get down there and stuff like that So I will also get in my soapbox and say, I really believe at this stage, every team in the WSL, at least, should be playing in their main stadia. I don't think there's an excuse for it. I know Brighton's been flirting with building new stadium, but that's going to be only temporary right. With the hope of the growth of the game, it's going to be small enough that within 10 years you would hope to grow out of it almost.

So is it really worth that cost of putting into building a new structure, a new stadium? why don't you go and build your fan base around the AMAX where you're going to get more fans anyway, right? Because it's Brighton. You're building a local fan base and try and work it out where you can use that stadium to your advantage and start building the foundations

of having a real, you know, Brighton cohort of fans. I just think, yeah, we try and come up with all of these solutions why they shouldn't be playing the main stadium, whereas just put them in. It's as easy as that for me. Good soapbox rant, so far. say. Sof on her soapbox. Maybe we should make that feature every week. I like it. Right. Serena Vigman announces her first England squad of 2026 later this morning ahead of upcoming World Cup

qualifiers against Ukraine and Iceland. As I've already told you that we were recording at half-past seven this morning, I'm going to take down the wall and explain that Susie and Sophie, once the squad is announced, are going to insert their reaction. So this is their inserted reaction. So the England squad for the next two fixtures against Ukraine and Iceland has dropped. It's the first games of the year. What do you make of it so the first senior call-up for London City, lionesses Poppy Patton? What do you think of that and the rest of it?

I'm very pleased for Poppy. She's had to wait her time and she's had a few injuries, I think, to deal with, especially this season before she could really get going with London City. So, yeah, very, very pleased for her. It's been a long time coming, and it is now up to her to take this opportunity, like she's seen, you know, the likes of Lucia Kendall and Frey Godfrey, who's gotten into the squad again, take their chances to kind of cement their places. So I think that's very exciting, super important.

Bit of a weird one, I think, just because it's a start of a year. You never know what is going to come after the reset over the Christmas break. They kind of ended in a really good spot at the end of the year with those two games. China and Ghana. So can they pick that up because this is really important? You know, there's only one automatic qualifying spot in this group. Otherwise, you have to go through the playoff system. The jeopardy is there. They've got Spain to come in the next window, not this window, thankfully. They can start maybe a bit easier against Ukraine and Iceland. Yeah, and there's some injury problems. No, Neve Charles, Missy Boe Kerns, Ellatoon, Beth Meade,

all out. Questions of Fitness, Lucia Kendall, Lucy Bronsley, Williamson, like all only recently returning. I don't think that should be too much of a worry. I know these matches matter, but at the same time, like I kind of like a little bit of rotation. We know that the likes of Lucy Bronze and Leah Williamson have no trouble sort of slotting back into things.

Lucia Kendall got, was it, like, came on in the 72nd minute or something, wasn't it at the weekend? So it's got a little bit in her legs. Like, I'm not overly concerned about that. given that the quality of the options that are available. But we're lucky. We're spoiled. We've got, like, you know, you look at this squad list

and you look at the list of players missing through injury for whatever reason. And we're lucky that it's not hugely weakened. Like, it's still an incredibly strong squad. So I'm kind of like, yeah, curious to see how it does. We're lucky. We're very lucky, as you see. Yeah. And we're optimists.

always optimist but yeah no I think it's the perfect window to try and get back into things get things motoring ahead of a big next window with the Spain games they're the ones that are going to decide this group you would think despite some of the quality

that Ukraine and Iceland have they're just going to be a bit too much Spain and England are going to be a bit too much for them so that's going to be the headline as it were to decide which of the two are going to have to go through the playoff system which is scary

Thank you to Susie and Sophie for their inserted reaction. Right, Sani, just to finish off. You spent some time with Tracy Neville, who's just been named Managing Director of Stockport County, Ladies. A big move from the club. What did you learn? Well, Anna Rebrand as well, from Ladies to Women. That's the first thing that's happened. Yeah, this is kind of, it is exciting.

It is an exciting thing that's happening at Stockport. And if you've not followed what the men's side have done, basically, they were, they'd fallen as low as the sixth tier. And in fact, the goalkeeper at the moment in that time used to drive lorries. It used to be a lorry driver and then playing goal. And once a year, it'd have to miss a game to do a driving test on a Saturday afternoon. And so they've climbed up the levels through investment from a benefactor who's got dealings in property, basically. And that same benefactor has now taken the women's team as well and brought them in-house. So the women's team, they have bought their own training facility, Stockport Sports Village,

which does have its own microclimate on the big hill, just like wind blowing in. But it's not just like one, three G and it's got 200, 300 seats stand, but you've got all these pictures around it. So, you know, I've been down there coaching my under sevens team as well, you know, like this, there's lots going on there. So the women's teams are all now coming in-house with that. And so they're getting that investment. And so Tracy Nevel's come in as the managing director who's, you know, got influence in football. Immediately everyone will go to Gary in a twimber of a Phil, but also her mum and dad were very much involved in football, both at, both at Berry FC, actually.

And so she's got a lot of connections from an administrative kind of, she's got that feeling to start with anyway, plus all the success she's had in her playing and coaching career in netball. So she's kind of spearheading this. And the mission is to get to WSL 2 in three years, which I did like, I did say to look, is this a lazy journalistic comparison? But is this, is this the rexom of women's football? And we had a little joke about how she's not quite of Ryan Reynolds kind of stature. But essentially, you've got investment coming in, relatively sustainable, investment across the youth set up as well, and they're only in the fourth tier. So actually getting up through the leagues isn't that

difficult at all. Relatively speaking, I know the levels are, but I mean like literally like it's a couple of promotions. So that's very exciting for Stoppore and more clubs need to be doing that. And if you are going to, I know like Vila, for example, I've delineated there. women's and men's team for different reasons. But if you are going to take the women's team and make sure it's actually allied with the men's team investment-wise, then Stockport could be the way to go. So it's a watch this space. And I know she's got the year of a couple of the big bosses in the women's game as well, kind of looking out and hoping that she does well. So very drivy-driven, dreary determined, as you'd expect, but also kind of very real. She's still

proper Barry. She's the Barry hasn't gone out of her in Tracy Neville. So She's a winner. I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do. She's a real force for sure. Now, the Adobe Women's FAA Cup fifth round starts this week, and we got this email in from Rashik Rye. Just because the FAA can't sell its TV rights outside of the UK, why should France from outside of the UK be barred from watching FAA Cup matches? And now that we have a Europa League version in women's football, shouldn't that place go to the FAA Cup winner? Thoughts? So, yeah, two things. I think it follows on from the problem of the last round, where the four broadcast picks were the only games other than Spurs who had an earlier kickoff were able to be shown because the broadcasting rights restricted. Any game that kind of clashed at any time with the four broadcast picks can be shown, which I think at this stage of the growth of the FA Cup in the women's side of the game anyway, in terms of building fan bases and building. and audiences, both here and overseas, is kind of a gatekeeping that we don't need. I understand in terms of commerciality and rights deals and all of that, I get it. But I think when you're thinking about the wider picture of trying to get more fans watching their team play regularly, the fact that you had, what, six fixtures or something like that,

without the opportunity of fans, the fans of that team to watch those teams play, was quite short-sighted. So there's that point. I think in terms of the Europa Cup, I think it needs to. to be looked up by UEFA quite significantly. I know the idea was to try and bring the disparity up from leagues around Europe to try and show, A, that they're working in leagues across Europe, but also they're trying to bridge that gap between the Champions League and the Europa Cup.

But the problem is that, you know, when you're looking at the best leagues in Europe, their teams in the fourth, fifth aren't getting into this competition. I mean, you're looking at maybe a bit of a bit of a, a downgraded competition at the moment where it's a really good opportunity for some clubs from some nations to be playing in it and they get the title of playing European football. But there was also a bottleneck in leagues where they're not getting European football with clubs that really could compete at a second tier level of European football, right? You're thinking about Tottenham at the moment or maybe potentially Ashton Villa at some point in time

or London City eventually. It's their step up into that Champions League. and getting them ready to play Champions League football, which when there's only three spots for Champions League football anyway, it's quite hard to get into or quite hard to maintain it. So you get in for one season, you drop out again because you haven't finished top three, you're in the top four, and then you bounce up and down, and you never get the momentum or the experience to try and build on that.

So two big issues, I think, that two organisations really need to properly look at. Yeah, really good point, really good email as well. Thank you, Rashik. You can keep having your say, send in your questions via X or email us at Women's Football Weekly at the Guardian.com. A regular reminder for you as well to sign up for our biweekly women's football newsletter. It's called Moving the Goalposts and so, geniusly, all you need to do is search moving the goalposts sign up in order to sign up for it.

Sannie, it's been a pleasure as always. Take care. Cheers. Thank you. And thank you and sorry to the students that I'm going to be late for very soon. Sof, lovely to see you. Thank you. I'm going to go and enjoy this lovely day that we finally have.

Oh, well, I'm not sure whether I've got that lovely day, where I am. Susie, I hope to see you on another dance floor near you anytime soon. I don't know if my knees can cope anymore. I'm too old. That was a good three-hour-plus dance session that we had on Saturday night. It was wonderful. And I'm getting my Panto ticket. Right, the Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced.

Produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray. Music composition was by Laura Ayerdow. Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens. This is The Guardian.