Matchweek 36

Introduction  

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to our Monday round-up section on Premier Skills English.  

Jack: Hi there. I’m Jack. Every Monday we discuss last weekend’s action, the best players, the best matches, Fantasy Football, and make some predictions for next weekend.

Rich: We want you to practise your English and interact with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Jack: You can do this on the Premier Skills English website or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page - if that’s where you are listening to us.

Rich: There were some exciting matches in Matchweek 36 semi-finals so let’s get on with this week’s round-up!

Headlines

Rich: Ton up for City in away win at West Ham.

Jack: Manchester City reached 100 goals for the season as they crushed West Ham four one. Leroy Sane, an own goal, Fernandinho and Gabriel Jesus got the goals. City need only two more goals in their last three matches to break the Premier League record for most goals in a season.

Rich: United leave it late against Arsenal.

Jack: Manchester Utd got a last-minute winner as Arsene Wenger’s final trip to Old Trafford ended in defeat. Henrikh Mkhitaryan looked like he had won a point after Paul Pogba’s opener but Marouane Fellaini popped up for the winner in injury time.

Rich: Saints fighting for safety.

Jack: Southampton won the south coast derby 2-1 against Bournemouth to improve their chances of beating the drop. Saints Serbian winger, Dusan Tadic, got both goals and Southampton are now only a point from safety with three games to play.

Definition Alert! 

Rich: Southampton have improved their chances of beating the drop. Beating the drop?

Jack: That’s a good expression … the drop is relegation to the Championship and all teams want to avoid that ... they want to beat it. 

Rich: Not to be confused with drop the beat which is to do with music.

Jack: Definitely not. There are other idiomatic expressions to mean win your fight against relegation, too. One is to avoid the trapdoor - a trapdoor is a door on the floor with the cellar underneath.

Rich: And if you don’t avoid the trapdoor you fall through the trapdoor and into the Championship. Disaster!

Matchweek Awards

Rich: Right, every Monday, we give out three matchweek awards. Player of the Week, Team of the Week and Match of the Week.

Jack: In the comments section, you need to tell us if you agree with our choices …

Rich: These awards always create a lot of discussion. Last week lots of you agreed with our choices but not all of you.

Jack: Last week Rich said Manchester City was Team of the Week, but Milos from Serbia thought it should have been Manchester Utd and Elghoul from Algeria said that we should be only choosing Premier League matches not FA Cup matches.

Rich: Only Premier League matches this week, Elghoul. Let’s start with our Player of the Week. There were some great individual performances in the Premier League Raheem Sterling got a hat-trick of assists for City and Wilfried Zaha was brilliant for Palace but we’re going to go for Southampton's Dusan Tadic. Two goals that keep Southampton’s season alive.

Jack: Good choice! What about Team of the Week? There was another big win for Manchester City away to West Ham?

Rich: I know but we’re going to go with Crystal Palace who beat Leicester 5-0 and have surely secured Premier League safety. It was a brilliant performance from the Eagles.

Jack: What about the Match of the Week?

Rich: Well, the Palace and City matches were good but a bit one-sided. I think the south coast derby between Southampton and Bournemouth was the match of the week. There’s always a lot of tension in a derby match and this one was no different.

Fantasy Football

Rich: What’s been happening in Fantasy Football this week, Jack?

Jack: The top scoring player in matchweek 36 was Southampton’s Dusan Tadic with 15 points. I doubt if many people had the Serbian winger in their team.

Rich: Where is the Premier Skills team in the Premier Skills Fantasy football league?

Jack: We’re having a poor end to the season. We’re down to 17th place but our Team of the Week is doing much better. IMFC managed by Imtiaz Ahamad from Bangladesh already has 62 points in this Matchweek.

Rich: And Gerardo Lopez from Mexico is still top. I don’t think anyone is going to stop him now.

Matchweek Prediction

Jack: Last week you predicted a big win for Manchester Utd against Arsenal, but it was much closer than you’d thought.

Rich: Yes, United needed that injury time winner from Marouane Fellaini to get over the line. Milos from Serbia and Khaldoun83 and Elghoul from Algeria thought United would win, too.

Jack: Which match are you going to look at in Matchweek 37?

Rich: Matchweek 37’s big match is Chelsea against Liverpool. After a poor season, amazingly Chelsea still have a chance of qualifying for the Champions League and it might be at the expense of Liverpool. If Chelsea get all three points in this one they will be just three points behind the Reds with two matches left to play while Liverpool will have just one match left. Liverpool, of course, will have just returned from their Champions League match against Roma so it might be a good time to play them. For that reason, I’m going to go for a 1-0 win to Chelsea.

Jack: I agree, Rich. A big week for Liverpool. Do you think they can do it against Roma? Can they reach the final?

Rich: Well, they are 5-2 up so I hope so. What about Arsenal in the Europa Cup semi-final.

Jack: Well it’s a bit more difficult but we still have a chance against Atletico Madrid.

Rich: Right, that’s all we have time for. I hope you have enjoyed this football round-up. 

Jack: And don’t forget to join the discussion at the bottom of the page. And if you’ve enjoyed this podcast why not leave a rating or review and that will help other people find us. 

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.