Matchweek 4: Plain Sailing

Introduction  

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

Rich: Hi there. I’m Rich. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

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

Rich: 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.

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

Rich: Let’s start by looking at all the headlines from Matchweek four.

Headlines

Jack: Arsenal earn draw in derby thriller.

Rich: Arsenal came back from two goals down to earn a point in the North London Derby. Spurs went ahead after only ten minutes through Christian Eriksen and further ahead when Granit Xhaka hacked down Son Heung MIn in the box. Harry Kane scored the penalty. Alexandre Lacazette pulled one back just before half-time and Arsenal laid siege to the Tottenham goal in the second half. Arsenal finally got the point they deserved when Pierre Emerick Aubameyang scored his third of the season.

Jack: Saints and Blades hold big guns.

Rich: Manchester United and Chelsea were both held to disappointing draws by Southampton and Sheffield United. Man Utd were pegged back by a Jannick Vestergaard header after Daniel James had given them the lead and couldn’t capitalise when the Saints were reduced to ten for the final 20 minutes. It looked like plain sailing when a Tammy Abraham brace put Chelsea 2-0 up at the break but a Callum Robinson goal and a last-minute own goal by Kurt Zouma gave the Blades a share of the points.

Jack: Top two in a league of their own.

Rich: There were convincing wins for Manchester City and Liverpool. City beat Brighton 4-0 with goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and two from Sergio Aguero. Aguero has now scored a goal with his last seven shots! Liverpool won 3-0 away at Burnley. An own goal followed by strikes from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino was enough to continue the Reds’ 100% winning start to the season.

Jack: It was another great weekend of Premier League action. There were also wins for Everton, Crystal Palace, Leicester, and West Ham.

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 pull one back, to lay siege to something, to be pegged back, to be reduced to ten, plain sailing and a convincing win.

Rich: Let’s start with the phrase to pull one back. In this phrase, ‘one’ is a goal so to pull a ‘goal’ back. The phrase is used when a team scores when they are losing by two or more goals. In the example, Arsenal were losing 2-0 and they scored to make it 2-1. They pulled one back.

Jack: The next phrase, or in this case idiom, is quite tricky - especially the spelling and pronunciation. It’s to lay siege to something. In general, it is connected to war when an army surrounds a town to stop food and people getting in or out.

Rich: It has a similar meaning in football. It means one team is attacking all the time and the other team can only defend and can not get out of their own half of the pitch. Arsenal laid siege to the Tottenham goal. 

Jack: The next phrase is to be pegged back. To peg back is a phrasal verb that means to stop a team from increasing their lead or going further ahead. It is also often used when one team equalise.

Rich: It is often used in the passive to describe the team that is ahead. Manchester United were pegged back by Southampton. Manchester United were 1-0 ahead but they were pegged back when Southampton equalised. 

Jack: Right, the next phrase is also often seen in the passive. It is to be reduced to 10 men. It means to have a man sent off. In the headlines, we said ‘Southampton were reduced to ten men’. 

Rich: The referee is not important in this sentence so it is not necessary to say ‘the referee reduced Southampton to ten men’.

Jack: The next phrase is an idiom ‘plain sailing’. If something is ‘plain sailing’ it is very easy. Chelsea were 2-0 ahead at half time and probably thought that victory would be plain sailing.

Rich: Nothing is plain sailing on the Premier League! Right, our final phrase this week is a convincing win. A convincing win is a good win, often by two or more goals where a team has played much better than the other team.

Jack: Some difficult phrases this week. Rich! If our listeners are not sure how to use any of these phrases, what can they do? Can you give our listeners a bit of advice?

Rich: OK, well, you could look at the transcript on the Premier Skills English website for this show. It often helps if you can read and listen at the same time. Or, another idea is to look at the questions we ask you on the Premier Skills English website. We ask you a few football questions at the bottom of the page that include the phrases we have looked at. You have to answer these questions in our comments section.

Jack: Good advice. Also, you could just ask us a question in the comments section about anything you don’t understand and Rich and I will be happy to help. 

Football Awards

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

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

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

Rich: Let’s start with Player of the Week. Jamie Vardy got a couple for Leicester City, Christian Eriksen was brilliant for Spurs in the first half of the North London Derby and Matteo Guendouzi was fantastic for Arsenal in the second.

Jack: But our Player of the Week is Sergio Aguero. He got another two goals for City - that’s 170 Premier League goals now. He is also scoring every time he shoots. He’s had seven shots this season and scored seven goals!

Rich: The next award is for Team of the Week. Good wins for Manchester City and Liverpool and good comebacks by Arsenal and Sheffield United.

Jack: But our Team of the Week is Leicester City. Jamie Vardy is scoring again and Leicester are unbeaten this season. Could the Foxes challenge at the top again this season?

Rich: Rich: Finally, our Goal of the Week. We’re going to leave this one to you. We’re going to give you three options and you need to tell us which you think was best. Jack.

Jack: Goal number one: Sergio Aguero for Manchester City v Brighton. Aguero’s second goal was an outstanding finish from just outside the area.

Rich: Goal number two: Jamie Vardy for Leicester City v Bournemouth. Vardy’s first goal was a brilliant lob over the onrushing goalkeeper.

Jack: Goal number three: Andriy Yarmolenko for West Ham v Norwich. A splendid volley that wrapped up victory for the Hammers.

Rich: Right, OK. Those are our three options. Did you see them? Which do you think was the best? Let us know your choice and if you agree with our other weekly awards in our comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Matchweek Prediction 

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

Rich: No matches next week because it’s the international break.

Jack; Already? It’s like we’ve only just started. OK, so your prediction for Matchweek five will be on the 15th of September.

Rich: It will be the first time this season that there are no matches between any of last season’s top six so I’m going to pick a game where we may see a shock and that game is at Molineux where Wolves are at home to Chelsea. Wolves have a good home record against the top six and despite not winning a Premier League game this season they are much better than that suggests. Chelsea meanwhile have had a poor start to the season and have already conceded nine Premier League goals. I’m going to go for a 3-2 win to Wolves.

Jack: You can make your predictions on the Premier Skills English website in the comments section and talk about the big match at the same time!

Rich: Remember that we also have some questions for you to answer that give you a chance to use this week’s vocabulary.

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 on the Premier Skills English website. 

Rich: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, don’t forget to leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.