Chelsea Ladies' rivalry with Man City Women massive for women's football, says Karen Carney

Karen Carney insists Chelsea Ladies' rivalry with Manchester City Women is healthy and has stimulated growing interest in the women's game.

England international Carney joined Emma Hayes' side from hometown club Birmingham City in 2016 after Chelsea completed a league and Women's FA Cup double.

City were runners-up that year but went one better last term, going unbeaten during the league season to finish five points clear of Chelsea and lift the FA WSL 1 title.

The two teams boast 18 England internationals between them and Carney admits she could only appreciate the depth of the rivalry once she became a Chelsea player.

"The rivalry is pretty big," Carney told Sky Sports.

"I used to sit at the back of the bus on England duty when I was at Birmingham and would just sort of ignore it because I was not part of it.

"But now that I am a part of it I see that the rivalry is massive. There are definitely a few egos involved and you can really feel it whether you play with Chelsea or Man City.

"I think it's healthy. You need the league to be competitive and you need rivalries otherwise it is boring.

"Just look at the men's game and the matches between Arsenal and Tottenham, and Manchester United and Liverpool - the rivalries create talking points and are what makes sport interesting and exciting. You need that. It's healthy."

The two clubs had been drawn to play against each other on the opening weekend of the Spring Series, a one-off competition designed to smooth the transition to a winter calendar for the women's game.

That game has now been pushed back a month due to City's progress in the UEFA Women's Champions League and Carney is confident changes to the women's football season will benefit English clubs going forward.

"It's a bold move to change it [the calendar] but we are taking the Spring Series deadly seriously at Chelsea," Carney said.

"I think it is important we are aligned to the Champions League because last year we were effectively playing for the whole year. We played Wolfsburg in November and we'd been in since early January, which meant that we were unable to get our rest and recovery in.

"Also, when I was at Birmingham I remember our first game of the season was the Champions League quarter-final. We hadn't really played any games and we had to go out and perform.

"Man City have just had to do it [in their two-legged Champions League quarter-final tie with Fortuna Hjorring].

"They haven't played many competitive games and have had to go in and perform in arguably the club's biggest-ever game.

"That's hard. It is really difficult and bringing things into line allows all the teams to build up momentum and peak when they need to peak."