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

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:30We'll talk weather, Serena Vigman's England squad, plus we'll take your questions. And that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

0:48Suzy Rack, how are you? I'm good. And I'm on half term, so I'm running around to and from the pantomime every 30 seconds. But today is final day, so. And is the panto going well? It is brilliant. I cannot praise the writer and director, Ava 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. Soph Downey, how are you doing? I'm good, thank you. Yes, very bright and early today. That's not my normal time zone. I know. I'm sorry. It's totally my fault. Sunny Rudrovadula, doesn't matter what time of the day it is, is always in peak performance and happy.

1:37It doesn't matter that it's 7.30am. How are you? Yeah, I'm all right, thanks. Last time I was on, it was at 6.30 in the morning. So I was like, oh yeah, nice, nice late start. You know, I should be right now at Salford Uni, ready for a nine o 'clock lecture. And I got in the car, 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 at the speed limit and hope that there's no traffic because, yeah, it's half term. Get there on time. Listen, don't lull yourself into a false sense of security with that. I got stuck on the M25 for hours yesterday.

2:10I 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. 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 fourth-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.

2:47How do you even begin to dissect it? I mean, who needs defenders, right? Let's just play all out attack and push everyone into the opposition half and not give a crap about the ball coming the other way. It made me think of World 7's games where it is just that sort of backwards and forwards constantly. The defending left a huge amount to be desired. Aston Villa in particular, like when you come back to 3-2 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. Laissez-faire attitude, perhaps, would be a good explanation.

3:3725 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, Sani, was Spurs' 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 two 2.3 just 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 like really kind of upped 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 you've kind of been waiting for it to click right and Martin Ho has he's 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 and I think really seeing it albeit against the Villa side who have repeatedly now had these sorts of scorelines well not these sorts of scorelines this was 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 and it's whether they are getting there.

4:55We are seeing a lot, but I just find it a bit hard to really nail my flag to the mast when the scoreline's 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.

5:36And unless you're really technical with that, it can lead to a high risk of turnovers. And if you misplace the passes, then it 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.

6:07Missy Bo Kearns 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 defensive structure and leadership, which is maybe 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. 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 an out-and-out nine that can come in and replace her.

6:44So they need at least two centre-forwards brought in, in my opinion. but I'd like to see Arroyo be given more time. I, you know, having spoken to her, interacted 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 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.

7:25Listen, 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. Shukhan Nishkan on the score sheet, giving them the lead just before half-time. Lauren James then making sure of the victory with one of her trademark finishes. it means that their Champions League hopes are still alive, Sani. Sonia 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?

8:01Well, I think the fact that Lauren James has, for now at least, shaped the ankle injury from the summer. I think Chelsea are a completely different proposition when 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 goal she scored was just 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?

8:37I mean, there have been a couple of players that haven't quite maybe performed this. We might have wanted them to coming in. The problem with this game is, by the way, that 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 Kings 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 them to just fall over. But that was more down towards Brighton's game maybe.

9:09But anyway, yeah. But yeah, so I think Lauren James coming back is a huge, huge plus. And I think that alone hopefully will alleviate things a little bit for Bon Pastor. You talk about good talkers and people who are really 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 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.

9:49We've still got Sam Kerr not fully fit, Aggie Beaver-Jones as well, Myra 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 their 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. who's Paul Green going is, you know, I'd say to all accounts from anyone in the women's set up or the women's game generally a massive, massive blow to things.

10:35And, 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 picking up injuries. Yes, Alyssa Thompson came in, but in terms 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 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.

11:25So that's going to be an interesting way that Sonia Bonpastore is going to have to manage. A quick one on Liverpool, Soph, 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 Gareth 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.

12:00The fact that 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. 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 have the kind of real discipline about them. I think they're driven by Kerry Holland, who has this role where she's a real leader of the team.

12:32She'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 them. And the next step for these sides is just being able to take those chances when they come. Because Chelsea go one down. And it could be the same story, but it could also be a different story.

13:02You 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.

13:34Their nose is just in front in the race for Champions League qualification. It was a comeback win 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 Atletico Madrid in the Champions League as well. This is what he had to say. To use a Manchester term, 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.

14:12It's not easy to come off the pitch after we played midweek against Atletico, get back at 4am 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, Sani, 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's 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.

14:50And 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 turland'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 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 to the best atmosphere but then that's a wider thing and the kickoff times being horrible and the journey to get to Leeds itself makes it terrible.

15:42There was that period where there were United fans really unhappy with Mark Skinner and not happy with how last season went. And there was a point where I was a bit like, yeah, I can see this. And you're hearing the management speak and you're doing your post-match interviews and it kind of glazed over. And I feel like he's kind of got a bit past that as well. I think when you talk to him, it does feel a bit more genuine. And I don't know if that comes across with the players as well. But overall, they've got a really nice vibe. Dare we mention a tactical timeout? Or has that been done to death over the past couple of years?

16:16And we have spoken about it at length on this pod before. And, you know, there are things being done. But how you police it is very difficult, I think. Ida Maestro 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 Eder. I think he's come in, obviously, it's only his first block of games.

16:56Big surprise when Jocelyn 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 surprise is, is they've got a lot of experience in that team. So you would expect them to be able to, you know, bring it through in terms of like the key to Paris or Daniela van der Donk and players like that who have experienced, you know, the absolute high-pressure moments on the world stage and that you could think they could add to that experience.

17:37But 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'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 up the summer for next year. Someone else still going is Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Radcliffe, getting his spade out, digging his holes.

18:11We've got to talk about these comments that he made, making headlines for controversial reasons, not the first time. Radcliffe told Sky News last week that the UK had been colonised by immigrants. You can't have an economy with 9 million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in, he said. I mean, the UK has 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, we don't have time to breathe.

18:48We'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 FA'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.

19:26Susie, 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 you know Alex Ferguson to Eric Cantona 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 uh 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?

20:29The 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 Atletico 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 and bringing them in and they all pay their taxes and all they're all on pay PAYE they're all you know contributing massively to our society in many different forms.

21:12And 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 Barclays WSL action.

21:49Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Manchester City return to winning ways in style with a 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 Shaw, Yui Hasegawa, Carolyn and Ayoba 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.

22:24And given the context of 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 Midema'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 really strong number nine type players that kind of time and space in the box.

23:02Lauren 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. It was just a phenomenally aggressive attacking performance. and Leicester'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 Jaglerz's 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.

23:49However, 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 Miedema 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 know, She hasn'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 to prevent any sort of goal difference situation like a couple of years ago? Yeah, I don't know.

24:25We learned too much more. The ruthless aggression we've already seen repeatedly, actually, going back to the Villa game before the break, West Ham, 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, took it on, incredible hit. And she's been on a great run of form as well. There's such a wider range of players who were able to step up that it really is quite frightening. And yeah, you've got to feel for Rick Passmore and Leicester.

25:04It'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 Leicester, 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 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, I mean, the players would never admit it. but at what point does it kind of make you think, all right, well, we've chalked this one off and we're going to take our foot off the gas now.

25:42I don't know if that's really a thing, but you know what I mean? Like if you know you're not going to get outright relegated and the clubs are kind of have that somewhere in the back of their 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 there's only a point difference between Leicester and Liverpool anyway. Yeah, we've kind of discussed this. It's a strange, strange season. without a doubt. Rick Parsmore called it a free hit. 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.