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