Matchweeks 19 & 20 - Stumble to defeat

Matchweeks 19 & 20

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. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Rich: We want you to use and practise these phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Jack: If you listen to us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Rich: You can find all our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page.

Jack: There have been lots of matches over the holiday period in the UK so we’ve got two Matchweeks to cover. Matchweek 19 and Matchweek 20. 

Jack: Let’s start with our headlines!

Headlines

Rich: Liverpool stretch their lead at the top.

Jack: The Reds are now seven points clear of Manchester City. On Boxing Day, the 26th of December, they hammered Newcastle and four days later demolished Arsenal 5-1. A nice Christmas present for all their fans.

Rich: City and Spurs stumble.

Jack: Both Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur failed to keep up with Liverpool’s winning run. City fell to defeat against Leicester City in Matchweek 19 while Wolves stunned Spurs with a 3-1 win at Wembley Stadium in Matchweek 20.

Rich: Ole bringing the good times back to Old Trafford.

Jack: It’s three wins out of three for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United. United put three past Huddersfield and four past Bournemouth to make it 12 goals in the last three matches for United.

Rich: The matches have been coming thick and fast over the last few days. It’s hard to keep up sometimes.

Jack: Yes, it is. The next round of matches - matchweek 21 - kicks off on New Year’s Day!

Vocabulary alert!

Rich: In our vocabulary alert, we look at some football English that we used in the headlines.

Jack: Our six words and phrases this week are: to stretch, to hammer, to demolish, to stumble, to fall to defeat, and to stun.

Rich: Let’s start with the word stretch.

Jack: Liverpool have stretched their lead at the top of the table. Liverpool have extended their lead, it has got bigger. It was four points it’s now seven points.

Rich: The next two words are hammer and demolish. These are similar to destroy and are used when one team beats another by a big scoreline such as 4four or five nil.

Jack: To stumble means to fall or almost fall to the ground when you are running. It can also mean to fail at something temporarily.

Rich: City stumbled against Leicester but they got back to winning in their next match.

Jack: Spurs fell to defeat against Wolves. Fell to defeat is another, more poetic way of saying a team lost. 

Rich: It was a big surprise that Wolves beat Spurs. We can say Wolves stunned Spurs. To stun someone can mean to surprise or shock someone. 

Jack: Spurs fans were definitely stunned by that 3-1 defeat.

Rich: Have a think about these phrases and see if you can use any of them in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

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 cover two matchweeks. Matchweek 19 & Matchweek 20.

Rich: Let’s start with Player of the Week. There have been some great performances over the last two matchweeks. Roberto Firmino got a hat-trick, Cardiff’s Phillipino goalkeeper has been in great form for Cardiff City and N’Golo Kante has been superb for Chelsea. 

Jack: But our Player of the Week is Paul Pogba. Four goals in his last two matches for Manchester United. Pogba is a player revitalised under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Rich: What about our Team of the Week?

Jack: There were only three teams to win both their festive fixtures; Manchester United, Chelsea and our Team of the Week … Liverpool.

Rich: The Reds are flying at the moment. Finally our Goal of the week. There were 59 goals in matchweeks 19 and 20 and some great strikes.

Jack: Our Goal of the Week goes to Leicester CIty’s Ricardo Pereira. It was a great strike and absolutely stunned Manchester City who stumbled to a 2-1 defeat. 

Matchweek Prediction 

Jack: Every week, Rich predicts the result of one Premier League match and we want you to make your prediction, too.

Rich: This week you have to be fast because the match is on Thursday the third of January.

Jack: It’s a big one, isn’t it?

Rich: Yes, it’s possibly the biggest match of the season. Liverpool travel to Manchester to face City at the Etihad Stadium. Liverpool could stretch their lead to an amazing 10 points with a win. It should be a fabulous match with a lot of attacking football. I think Liverpool can do it. They are the form team and City have stumbled a few times recently. I think the final score will be Manchester City 1 - 2 Liverpool.

Jack: I think you’re starting to show a little bit of bias. City really need to win this one and I think they will which will make the title race very exciting. I think City will win 2-1.

Rich: We will see. Make your predictions on the page below. You get one point if you predict the right result and three points if you predict the right score.

Jack: 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. 

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.