In Leyton, Chelsea’s Erin Cuthbert continued to show why she’s one of the best players to come out of Scotland in the last decade; 24 hours later, Gunner, Frida Maanum put on a show in Borehamwood. There is little question that in their respective matches, Chelsea and Arsenal were the deserved winners but they were playing in their first Conti Cup games of the season, after their opposition had already played three and four times respectively.
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While Aston Villa were grappling with Sheffield United in the league cup in Scunthorpe at the start of December, Arsenal were hosting Juventus at the Emirates. In late October, the day after Chelsea had humbled Vllaznia, Spurs eased their way to a win over Coventry United in the Conti. It’s clear and obvious that the WSL representatives in the Champions League can’t be in two places at the same time and it doesn’t make any sense to shoehorn them into the Conti Cup group rounds, but maybe it’s time for those in European competition to drop out of the league cup entirely?
Should Chelsea (who are away to West Ham in the semifinals) or Arsenal (at home to Manchester City) reach the final, they will do so on the merit of playing just two matches. As we have seen from seasons previous, they are two teams who can beat the rest of the field to lift the trophy but in those seasons, they’ve at least been required to put in the hard yards to navigate the group stages.
There is a long-standing argument that the league cup is undervalued and under-loved, but are we not further devaluing it by having two teams fast-tracked into the last eight, taking up a full quarter of the available berths? In lieu of real structural changes to the format of the Conti Cup, maybe it’s time to look at opening it up by closing it off to those in European competitions.
