Taylor tips Manchester City and Chelsea to ‘slug it out’ in Women’s FA Cup final

Gareth Taylor expects Manchester City’s Women’s FA Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday to be a slugfest and is clear that even if his team fail to win their season has been a success.

City go into the game in sparkling form, having won 13 games in a row, a sequence that includes beating Emma Hayes’s side 3-1 in the League Cup final, the second trophy of Taylor’s three-year tenure after he guided his side to the 2020 FA Cup.

Victory against Reading on the final day of the Women’s Super League campaign secured Champions League qualification for City and they face a Chelsea team who are the FA Cup holders and WSL champions. Taylor is relishing Sunday’s showpiece.

“It’s going to be fantastic – it is two good teams going at it, slugging it out, two teams who have shown really good quality this season,” the manager said. “It’s great for fans of both teams to see their teams going at it; hopefully for the neutral as well it will be an exciting game. We hope to see some good football played, some good talent on display and worthy victors at the end.

“Of course it’s massive [to beat Chelsea]. We want to do it, there’s no doubt about that. But there’s a really healthy respect between the clubs, a healthy respect between the players, between myself and Emma, the two organisations. Why wouldn’t we commend what they’ve done? Emma’s been there a long time [10 years], she’s been supported, she’s won trophies, got to finals, she’s done amazingly well.

“We’ve been there before in cup finals and so have Chelsea, so there’s no real edge for either team. It’s just who goes out and performs best.”

City’s closing phase of the campaign came after a start that featured four losses from the opening seven games. Taylor received