The FA Cup Final - Chelsea v Arsenal

Jack: Hi everybody. I’m Jack and we’re here with a little bit of extra football English for you to think about.

Rich: That’s right, Jack. Just a little bit. Hi, everybody. I’m Rich and we’re here with this week’s Premier League Prediction and some football English for you to practise.

Jack: It’s all over! The Premier League finished with a bang last weekend. Lots of goals and lots of entertainment.

Rich: There were 37 goals in total. Manchester City and Chelsea got five and Spurs got seven away at Hull.

Jack: But, Arsenal missed out on the Champions League for the first time in 20 years. I’m a bit disappointed about that.

Rich: Oh well! Liverpool got there with a 3-0 win against Middlesbrough. Look on the bright side, you can concentrate more on the Premier League next season!

Jack: And we only have 82 days until it all kicks off again on August 12th.

Rich: But the football season isn’t quite over yet. This weekend sees the FA Cup Final at Wembley.

Jack: And it’s a chance for Arsenal to win a trophy despite having had quite an average season.

Rich: That’s right. Arsenal are up against Chelsea, who are going for the league and cup double. If Chelsea win, it will be the first double since the 2009/10 season.

Jack: Only seven teams have ever done the double in over 140 years of football in England. It’s definitely something worth shouting about. Who do you think is going to win, Rich?

Rich: Well, Chelsea have been the best team this season, winning the Premier League by seven points and finishing 18 points above Arsenal who finished fifth. Chelsea are also in good form and have won their last six matches - scoring twenty goals. Arsenal have been in even better form - they have won their last eight Premier League matches. Despite Arsenal winning those matches, I think Chelsea will win. Alexis Sanchez will have to have an amazing game to give Arsenal a chance. I think we will see Eden Hazard getting the goal that wins the cup for Chelsea. Final score: Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal

Jack: Mmmm. I think Sanchez will have a fantastic game. I think Arsenal will win 3-1. Before we go, let’s look at a couple of phrases we used earlier. 

Rich: A minute ago, Jack said ‘it’s a chance for Arsenal to win a trophy despite having had quite an average season. And I earlier said ‘Despite Arsenal winning those matches, I think Chelsea will win’.

Jack: In both of these sentences we use the word ‘despite’. 

Rich: ‘Despite’ is used to show contrast or difference. The word is followed by a noun phrase or pronoun. In the first example despite is followed by ‘having had quite an average season’.

Jack: The second sentence is also a noun phrase and also includes the gerund (the -ing form) which is the noun form of a verb. Rich said ‘despite Arsenal winning’

Rich: We don’t usually say ‘despite of’. A synonym of ‘despite’ is ‘in spite of’. So we could have said ‘ In spite of Arsenal winning those matches’ and ‘in spite of having had quite an average season’.

Jack: But, we can’t say despite of having had an average season, we need to say despite having had an average season.

Rich: Right. A final thing before we leave you. Congratulations to Gerardo Lopez from Mexico. He is the winner of our first Premier Skills Fantasy Football League.

Jack: His team - Los 11 Impostores - got 2424 points. Enough to win the Premier Skills League and he finished in 358th position overall in the Premier League game.

Rich: That doesn’t sound great but when you remember there are over 4.5 million players it’s very impressive.

Jack: Yeah, I finished in 51st place in the Premier Skills League. Not that great.

Rich: I finished in 8th. I think I’m quite happy with that.

Jack: Right, that’s all from us for now. We’ll be back later in the week with a new podcast. Let us know who you think will win the FA Cup in the vote and in the comments section.

Rich: And let us know what you thought of the season and your club’s finishing position in the comments below.. 

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.