Manchester City took the bold decision to sack women's head coach Gareth Taylor just days before the League Cup final - which they lost in unfortunate circumstances.
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Steph Houghton walks down a guard of honour following her last home game for Manchester City
Steph Houghton retired last season after a stellar Manchester City career. Now she's secured a speedy return to the City Football Academy.
(Image: 2024 The FA)
If you are confident enough to sack your manager days before a cup final, you must be confident that the risk is worth taking. So what must Manchester City decision-makers have thought when Yui Hasegawa sliced into her own net last weekend to hand the Women's League Cup to Chelsea?
City had taken the seismic call to part ways with Gareth Taylor five days before the final,. which was the first of four consecutive clashes with Chelsea. Round one went to the Londoners and to compound matters star striker Bunny Shaw picked up an injury, as did cup final goalscorer Aoba Fujino. Captain Alex Greenwood and winger Lauren Hemp are already on the sidelines.
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Boss Nick Cushing, back to save City's season, will have been forgiven for asking whether it was worth returning to the side with three more meetings with an unbeaten Chelsea side this week.
Cushing did three things to put the final defeat behind City and lead them to a stunning Champions League quarter-final first leg victory over Chelsea on Wednesday. He instilled belief, via a little shift in formation.
"I saw belief and ambition [when I returned] but you have to believe you can beat the best and break an unbeaten run," he said on Friday. "The most difficult part of the game is to be consistent and beat the best teams. We're fourth because we haven't been consistent enough. For me if you don't believe after that top performance you're never going to believe."
City were more aggressive, a little more direct, and tweaked formation to a second-half 4-4-2 to get the best out of substitute Vivianne Miedema. She scored twice and City are in a commanding position in their Champions League tie.
With so many key players injured, Cushing put his faith in some youngsters to help break Chelsea's long unbeaten run. Gracie Prior stood out at centre-back and Lily Murphy impressed again in attack.
And another key change is the addition of legendary former captain Steph Houghton to Cushing's coaching staff - temporary for now. On the bench for Cushing's two games in charge so far, Houghton takes a first step into coaching after a spell doing punditry across both men's and women's football.
Houghton is well-respected, well-liked and has plenty of experience to pass on to her former teammates. Her presence will be useful when City welcome Chelsea to the Etihad Stadium for a must-win WSL clash on Sunday.
Win, and City keep the pressure on the top three who qualify for the Champions League next season. Lose, and the gap could be seven points by the end of the weekend with just five games left.
"It's critical. For me we should be competing for every trophy," Cushing said. "When you're outside of the Champions League places you're not competing for the title but minimum is competing in the Champions League. The gap will only get greater if we don't win. So it is important to repeat the performance [from Wednesday] but the three points are essential."
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After one win apiece at the halfway stage of City's quadruple-header with Chelsea, Cushing may have to rely on that belief and confidence over style this weekend.