Matchweek 2 - Hat-trick Hero!

Introduction  

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English.  

Jack: Hi there. I’m Jack. That’s right. We’re going to discuss all the latest football action from Matchweek 2 in the Premier League.

Rich: And not only that but we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Jack: And we want you to use and practise your English and interact with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: You can do this on the Premier Skills English website or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page.

Jack: Let’s start with this week’s headlines!

Headlines

Rich: City hit Huddersfield for six.

Jack: Manchester City beat Huddersfield Town 6-1 on Sunday and have started this season like they finished the last. Sergio Aguero got a hat-trick for City - the first of the new Premier League season. 

Rich: Brighton stun United for a second time.

Jack: Manchester United’s trip to the south coast ended in defeat for the second season in a row. Two goals in a minute by the Seagulls left United with a mountain to climb and despite goals from Romelu Lukaku and a late Paul Pogba penalty, Brighton hung on for a famous victory.

Rich: Chelsea get the better of Arsenal in five-goal thriller.

Jack: Chelsea beat Arsenal in a classic London Derby. Arsenal missed a hatful of first-half chances before Chelsea went 2-0 in front with goals by Pedro and Alvaro Morata. Arsenal then staged a comeback to level before the break. Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi got the goals. The second half was a more cagey affair but Marcos Alonso got the winner for Chelsea with 9 minutes remaining.
Vocabulary alert!

Rich: In our definition alert we look at some football English that we used in this week’s headlines.

Jack: The words and phrases we’re looking at this week are: a hat-trick, a hatful, a mountain to climb, and a cagey affair.

Rich: Sergio Aguero got a hat-trick for Manchester City. A hat-trick is three goals in one match. Aguero has scored more hat-tricks than any other current Premier League player.

Jack: Hat-trick was originally used in cricket nearly 200 years ago and is now used in lots of sports.

Rich: We used another phrase with ‘hat’ in the headlines. Arsenal missed a hatful of chances. This is a phrase that means a lot of. Arsenal missed a lot of chances in the first-half. They missed a hatful of chances.

Jack: This phrase is very specific and the only other way I can think of it being used is Arsenal could have scored a hatful. This means they could have scored a lot of goals.

Rich: Our next phrase is an idiom. The phrase is a mountain to climb. Two goals in a minute by the Seagulls left United with a mountain to climb.

Jack: To have a mountain to climb means to have something very difficult to do. It’s a popular idiom in sports when a team is behind in a match. It’s used much less outside of sports.

Rich: The final prase is a cagey affair. The second half was a more cagey affair.

Jack: To be cagey means to not want to give too much information about something.

Rich: In football, the affair refers to the match being played and a cagey affair involves two teams who are unwilling or don’t want to be too open in their style of play. They are quite defensive and don’t want to give away too many chances.

Jack: The Chelsea - Arsenal match was very open in the first half, but the second half was a much more cagey affair.

Football Awards

Rich: Right, every week, we give out three Matchweek awards. 

Jack: The awards are Player of the Week, Team of the Week and Goal of the Week.

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

Jack: These awards always create a lot of discussion between fans of different teams which is good to see.

Rich: Lots of you agreed with our choice of Goal of the Week last week: a great volley by Watford’s Roberto Pereyra.

Jack: But some of you disagree with our other awards. AssemJuve from Palestine thought Player of the Week should have been Liverpool’s Sadio Mane and Khaldoun83 from Algeria thought we should have chosen Manchester CIty’s Raheem Sterling.

Rich: Good to see everybody saying what you think! Let’s start with this week’s Player of the Week award.

Jack: There were some great performances. Harry Kane got a goal in August for the first ever time, Everton’s Jordan Pickford made one of the best saves I’ve seen for ages against Southampton and the Manchester City team … well all of them were good.

Rich: So, I think we’re going to go for the obvious pick. Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero. The Argentinian has nine Premier League hat-tricks and is now tenth on the list of all-time Premier League goalscorers.

Jack; That was quite an easy choice so what about Team of the Week. Shall we go with City?

Rich: We could but I think we’re going to look elsewhere. There were also good wins for Spurs, Watford, Bournemouth, Leicester and Everton but our Team of the Week is Brighton.

Jack: The first big surprise of the Premier League season as they beat Manchester United 3-2.

Rich: Finally, our Goal of the Week. Harry Kane scored a great goal for Spurs.

Jack: Kieren Trippier’s free-kick in that game was better than Kane’s.

Rich: Ahh! Yes, it was but David Silva’s free kick for Manchester City was better. Our Goal of the Week is the free-kick by Manchester City’s David Silva.

Jack: The first-ever free-kick he’s scored by City. I bet that surprises you.

Rich: It does.

Shout-out

Rich: Right, let’s move on to our next section. Football shout-out. 

Jack: Each week we’re going to look at a phrase that a fan or a commentator might use when watching a match.

Rich: This week’s phrase is down the line.

Jack: This phrase is connected to passing the ball on the sides of the pitch. It's an instruction that is used to pass the ball forward along the touchline. 

Rich: It’s often a full-back passing the ball to a winger. You may hear a commentator say ‘Walker passes it down the line to Sterling’ in a City match for example.

Jack: Or you might hear a fan or a manager shouting ‘down the line’ because that’s where they think the ball should be played.

Rich: Yep, it’s quite a common football phrase to hear during a match.

Matchweek Prediction 

Jack: Every week, Rich is going to predict one Premier League match and we want you to make your prediction, too.

Rich: Lots of you made your predictions last week but a special well done to NikoResh from Ukraine who was the only listener to predict a 3-2 win for Chelsea against Arsenal.

Jack: If you want to take a look at our prediction league we’ve put a link on the page below on the Premier Skills English website. Nikoresh is the leader with three points at the moment.

Rich: You will be able to see a League table of the predictions all our listeners made. Can you beat me? Can you beat Jack? 

Jack: You score one point for a correct result or three points for the exact score. What’s your prediction this week, Rich?

Rich: Matchweek three’s big match is definitely Manchester United against Spurs. Despite not making any new signings in the summer, Spurs have made a good start with two wins out of two. United have won one and lost one but haven’t looked great. Tottenham are probably slight favourites, especially now that Harry Kane has scored in August. I think it will be close so I am going to go for a draw. Final score: Manchester United 1-1 Tottenham.

Jack: I think United will win 2-0. They rarely lose two matches in a row.

Rich: Right, that’s all we have time for. I hope you have enjoyed this football round-up. Join the discussion at the bottom of the page. 

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.