There was no hint of an upset on Sunday at Borehamwood as Arsenal cruised past third tier team Gillingham Women 10-0 to set up a home tie with Crystal Palace, who play in the Championship.
The Arsenal manager had to take into account the tiredness of the players who were involved in multiple games during the international break and, therefore, made a few changes from the usual starting 11.
Williams; Maier, Patten, Wubben-Moy, McCabe; Gut, Little, Roord; Mead, Miedema, Foord started. Williamson, van de Donk, Goldie and Nobbs all came on as subs.
The goals were scored by Roord (hat-trick), Mead with a brace and singles by Little, Patten, with her first club goal, Nobbs, van de Donk and Miedema with her 92nd goal in 100 appearances. Just a phenomenal statistic for the Dutch striker.
The fourth round showed that the gap between the first tier and the third tier is growing exponentially with Arsenal winning 10-0, West Ham winning 11-0 and Manchester United winning 6-0. The elite Leagues (FA WSL and FA WC) had a huge advantage as they carried on during the pandemic while Tier 3 and below just stopped and only came back for the FA Women’s Cup ties as their league were deemed null and void again for the second consecutive season.
There was only one cupset out of the 16 ties, with fourth Tier Southampton defeating second Tier Lewes away 2-1. It has to be said that Southampton are backing their women’s team properly and they should have been promoted last season and this season had the leagues not been cancelled.
They are probably good enough to play in the Championship already.
It is interesting to note that Spurs Women were the first FA WSL team to make use of the six substitutions rule in the FA Women’s Cup, as an extra substitution is allowed in extra time.
They could also make an extra two, in cases of concussion, as part of the trials allowed by IFAB.
FA Women’s Cup results
- Leicester City 1-0 Liverpool
- Middlesbrough 0-9 Sheffield United
- Birmingham City 5-1 Coventry United
- Burnley 0-6 Manchester United
- Everton 2-1 Durham
- Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-5 Blackburn Rovers
- Huddersfield Town 3-2 Derby County
- Reading 2-3 (aet) Tottenham Hotspur
- Oxford United 1-2 (aet) Charlton Athletic
- Arsenal 10-0 Gillingham
- Lewes 1-2 Southampton FC
- Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 Bristol City
- West Ham United 11-0 Chichester & Selsey
- Crystal Palace 3-0 London Bees
The Gunners will be at home to Crystal Palace in the next round on May 16 and it will be Joe Montemurro’s last game as the Arsenal manager.
The last rounds will be played during the 2021/22 season, the same as it happened this year.
Here is the full FA Women’s Cup 5th round draw.
- Birmingham City v Southampton***
- Brighton & Hove Albion v Huddersfield Town**
- Arsenal v Crystal Palace*
- Blackburn Rovers* v Charlton Athletic*
- Manchester City v West Ham United
- Chelsea v Everton
- Manchester United v Leicester City*
- Tottenham Hotspur v Sheffield United
*denotes Championship team
**denotes Tier 3 team, FA WNL Northern Division
*** denotes Tier 4 team, FA WNL Division One South West