The Race for the Champions League

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: So, everything’s been decided. Chelsea are Premier League Champions for the fifth time after their win at West Brom last week.

Rich: Yes, congratulations to Chelsea! They have been the best team this season and it’s been a fantastic season for their fans. 

Jack: We also know which teams will be leaving the Premier League this season.

Rich: We’re saying goodbye to Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Hull City who have all been relegated.

Jack: Actually, not everything has been decided yet. We already know that Newcastle and Brighton have been promoted but we still don’t know which other team will join them.

Rich: That’s right. There are the play offs to decide which other team will win promotion to the Premier League.

Jack: And we still don’t know which teams will be playing in the Champions League next season.

Rich: That’s true and that will probably be decided on the final day of the Premier League season - this Sunday. 

Jack: Chelsea and Tottenham are certain to finish in the Champions League places but there are two more places available and three teams fighting for those places.

Rich: That’s right. Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal could all finish in the top four.
Jack: Rich - what’s your prediction?

Rich: Well, Manchester City and Liverpool have their destiny in their own hands. If Liverpool win their final match at home to already relegated Middlesbrough,  they will finish in the top four. Manchester City have two matches left to play, at home to West Brom and away to Watford. If they get four points from these two matches they are are also certain to be in the Champions League places. Arsenal, on the other hand, need to win their final two games against Sunderland and Everton. Then, they need to hope that either City lose one of their games or Liverpool fail to win their match against Middlesbrough. 

Jack: It all sounds very complicated. What do you think is going to happen? I’m hoping Arsenal will finish in the top four. I think it will be Arsenal and City.

Rich: I’m sorry to disappoint you, Jack but I’m going for Manchester City and Liverpool. I think Arsenal will win both their games but I don’t think it will be enough. I think Arsenal, City and Liverpool will win all their matches which will mean Liverpool and City joining Chelsea and Spurs in next season’s Champions League.

Jack: Mmmm, let’s see what happens on Sunday. Before we go, let’s look at a couple of phrases we used earlier. 

Rich: Earlier, Jack said this sentence: ‘not everything has been decided yet. We already know that Newcastle and Brighton have been promoted but we still don’t know which other team will join them.’

Jack: In these sentences, I used three important words; ‘yet’, ‘already’ and ‘still’. It’s common to see these words used with the present perfect,  but they can be used with other tenses like with ‘still’ in this example. Let’s look at some ways that these words are frequently used.

Rich: We use ‘already’ to say that something happened earlier. ‘We already know.’ ‘We already know that Newcastle and Brighton have been promoted’. We knew this information two weeks ago. We usually use ‘already’ in positive sentences and use it in the middle of sentences but it’s common in American English to use it at the end of sentences, too.

Jack: We use ‘yet’ to talk about something that hasn’t happened but we think that it will happen in the future. ‘Not everything has been decided yet.’ It’s not been decided but it will be decided in the future - when the season is over everything will have been decided. We usually use ‘yet’ in questions and negatives and use it at the end of sentences.

Rich: And we use ‘still’ to also talk about something that hasn’t happened. You usually find ‘still’ in positive sentences in the middle of the sentence rather than at the end.

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 qualify for the Champions League  in the vote and in the comments section.

Rich: And remember to discuss the rest of this week’s football fixtures in the comments section. 

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.