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Matchweek 4 - Breaking the deadlock

Matchweek 4 - Breaking the deadlock

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of football action for learners of English from across the globe. In This Week, Jack and Rich talk about the latest action from the Premier League. They keep you up to date with our new prediction competition and have lots of football English for you to learn.

Transcript

If the listening is a bit difficult, try listening and reading at the same time.
Read the transcript and listen at the same time.

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 4 in the Premier League.

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

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

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

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

Headlines

Rich: United are in the pink with win at Burnley.

Jack: Wearing their new pink away shirt, Manchester United got back to winning ways with a comfortable 2-0 win at Burnley. Romelu Lukaku broke the deadlock after 27 minutes with a fine header and added a second just before the break. Lukaku could have had a hat-trick as United had plenty of chances on the break in the second half.

Rich: Hornets sting Spurs in comeback win.

Jack: Watford continued their 100% start to the season with a big win against Tottenham. Spurs took the lead through an own goal, but goals from the captain, Troy Deeney and defender, Craig Cathcart, gave Watford the win. Watford will enjoy the international break from the top of the Premier League!

Rich: Reds and Blues at the top. 

Jack: Liverpool and Chelsea both won to maintain their 100% starts to the season. Chelsea won 2-0  although it took until the 72nd minute for them to break down a stubborn Bournemouth defence. Liverpool got an early breakthrough against Leicester when Sadio Mane scored. Roberto Firmino looked to have made the game safe but a big mistake from goalkeeper, Allison made it 2-1 but Liverpool held on.

Rich: Some great matches last weekend and well played Watford. Top of the league.

Jack: What a great story! You predicted they would be relegated at the start of the season!

Rich: What do I know, hey?

Vocabulary alert!

Rich: In our vocabulary 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 all connected to the word ‘break’.

Rich: The words and phrases are: the break, the international break, a breakthrough, to break through, to break down, on the break and to break the deadlock.

Jack: We’ll start with the easier words and then look at the most difficult ones.

Rich: Break can be either a noun or a verb. When it’s a noun it usually means a short period of time to rest or when you stop doing something before you start doing something again.

Jack: Lukaku scored just before the break.

Rich: In football, the break is the half-time interval when players rest for fifteen minutes.

Jack: Watford will enjoy the international break.

Rich: The international break is a period of time when Premier League matches stop so international matches can be played. 

Jack: So, there are no Premier League matches next weekend because of the international break.

Rich: Liverpool got an early breakthrough.

Jack: This is more difficult but it usually means the first goal in a match. It emphasises that a team got through the opponent's defence.

Rich: United had plenty of chances on the break.

Jack: On the break describes a style of football. If a team play on the break it means they turn defence into attack very quickly.

Rich: Break can also be a verb.

Jack: It took Chelsea until the 72nd minute to break down a stubborn Bournemouth defence.

Rich: To break down a defence means to finally create chances or score against a team that is defending a lot and defending well.

Jack: You could also use break through to mean the same thing here.

Rich: Lukaku broke the deadlock in the 27th minute.

Jack: This phrase means the same as break through but it emphasises that defences had been very strong up until this point. It is often used when a game is 0-0 for a long time.

Rich: OK, your challenge now is to listen for these words in the rest of this podcast. 

Jack: The words you need to listen for are: the break, the international break, a breakthrough, to break through, to break down, on the break and to break the deadlock.

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 choices last week but not all of you. A lot of this was to do with our choice of Fulham as Team of the Week.

Jack: AndoiungSpurs from Vietnam, Rafael RC and Rafael Robson from Brazil, Milos from Serbia and Deepakdev004 all thought we should have chosen Tottenham.

Rich: And we agree with you! The problem was that we recorded the podcast before Tottenham's excellent 3-0 away win against Manchester Utd!

Jack: Now that’s sorted out, let’s talk about this week’s awards.

Rich: Let’s start with this week’s Player of the Week award.

Jack: Eden Hazard was outstanding for Chelsea, Alexandre Lacazette superb for Arsenal and Danny Ings was brilliant for Southampton.

Rich: But our Player of the Week is Watford’s Troy Deeney. He was fantastic in defence and attack for Watford against Spurs. A real captain’s performance.

Jack: What about Team of the Week? A difficult choice this week. Wolves got their first Premier League win, the top three all won and Arsenal and Manchester Utd were both impressive.

Rich: But our Team of the Week is Southampton. A first win of the season for Southampton. Once they broke the deadlock there was no way Palace were going to break down the Saints defence.

Jack: Finally, Goal of the Week. Raheem Sterling scored a cracker for Manchester City, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal for Arsenal was brilliant but our Goal of the Week Award goes to another Manchester City player.

Rich: Kyle Walker scored a brilliant long-range goal. It was his first goal for Manchester City after 52 matches for the club.

Jack: I’m sure he will be very happy when he hears he has won the Premier Skills English Goal of the Week Award!

Matchweek Prediction 

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

Rich: Lots of you made predictions last week for the Watford - Tottenham game but only one person predicted the exact result. What a brilliant prediction! That person must know everything about the Premier League!

Jack: OK, you can’t stop boasting now, we know that it is you!

Rich: Really? Me? That’s brilliant news!

Jack: That’s three points for Rich and if you want to check our prediction league and where you are in the table, click the link on the page below this podcast.

Rich: You can join our prediction competition at any time. Just log-in to the Premier Skills English website and make your Premier League predictions on the Matchweek 4 page.

Jack: There are no matches this weekend because of the international break so Matchweek 5 begins on the 15th September. What match are you going to look at, Rich?

Rich: There is no doubt what the big match is in Matchweek 5. It’s Spurs against Liverpool. Spurs will be looking to bounce back from their first defeat of the season against Watford. Liverpool will be looking to extend their 100% start to the campaign. This will be a close match but I expect Liverpool to make an early breakthrough as Tottenham's defence hasn’t looked that strong so far this season. However, I think Spurs will come back into the match and probably get a goal on the break as Liverpool look for a second. Final score Tottenham 1-1 Liverpool.

Jack: Another Spurs match? OK, I think Spurs will win 2-1.

Rich: 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.

Results

Matchweek 4:

Leicester 1-2 Liverpool

Brighton 2-2 Fulham

Chelsea 2-0 Bournemouth

Crystal Palace 0-2 Southampton

Everton 1-1 Huddersfield Town

West Ham 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Manchester City 2-1 Newcastle Utd

Cardiff City 2-3 Arsenal

Burnley 0-2 Manchester Utd

Watford 2-1 Tottenham

Romelu Lukaku scored both goals in Manchester Utd's 2-0 win against Burnley.

Vocabulary Alert

Football English

Take a look at the words in bold. Do you undertand what they mean?

Lukaku scored just before the break.

Watford will enjoy the international break.

Liverpool got an early breakthrough.

United had plenty of chances on the break.

It took Chelsea until the 72nd minute to break down a stubborn Bournemouth defence.

Lukaku broke the deadlock in the 27th minute.

Can you use the words in bold in a different sentence? Write a sentence at the bottom of the page. If you're not sure, listen to the audio for more explanations and examples.

Sadio Mane got the breakthroiugh for Liverpool and Roberto Firmino added the second in their 2-1 win against Leicester City.

Matchweek Awards

Do you agree with our choices?

Player of the Week: Troy Deeney (Watford)

Troy Deeney (centre) celebrates with his fellow goal scorer, Craig Cathcart, in Watford's 2-1 win against Spurs.

Team of the Week: Southampton

Southampton players celebrate during their first win of the season. A 2-0 win at Crystal Palace.

Goal of the Week: Kyle Walker (Manchester City)

Manchester City's Kyle Walker is really, really happy to hear that he has won the Premier Skills English Goal of the Week Award!

The Big Match

Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool

Rich's prediction for Matchweek four is Tottenham against Manchester United. Rich has predicted a 1-1 draw while Jack has gone for a 2-1 win to Spurs.

What is your prediction? Have a listen to what Rich and Jack say and then enter our prediction competition below. You get one point for the correct result and three points for predicting the exact score.

Where are you in our prediction league?

Who will be our Premier League Prediction Champion?

Formulário

Premier League Prediction: Tottenham v Liverpool

Use this form to make your prediction. You can only make one prediction so take care! When you have made your predictions, the form will vanish.

You need to be logged in to make your prediction!

Check out the league table for our prediction competition. What position are you in?

See results table

Four Questions

What do you think?

Jack and Rich have spoken about Matchweek 4 in the Premier League. Now it's your turn! Have a look at the questions and write your answers in the comments section below.

  1. Rich and Jack chose Troy Deeney of Watford as Player of the Week. Do you agree? 
  2. Jack and Rich chose Southampton as their Team of the Week. Do you agree?
  3. Rich chose Kyle Walker's goal for Manchester City as Goal of the Week? Did you see it? Do you agree?
  4. Use this week's vocabulary: Who broke the deadlock for your team last weekend?

Don't forget to make your prediction for this week's Big Match!

Let's get the conversation started and create a community!

Leave a comment

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Comentários

hsn's picture
hsn
06/03/2022
TR
5558
points

Phrases
• In career way there are many barriers have to be broken through. In other words a breakthrough at the beginning of career life gives chance to promote fast.,
• Football phrase "On the break" reminded me a bit risky tactic which is taken place by ambitious managers; All the players, even forwards come back very fast to the defence line after attack and look for goal chances by sudden attacks. But empty spaces during counter-attack give goal facility to the opponent.


hsn's picture
hsn
06/03/2022 16:22
Turkey
Tottenham Hotspur
5558

Phrases
• In career way there are many barriers have to be broken through. In other words a breakthrough at the beginning of career life gives chance to promote fast.,
• Football phrase "On the break" reminded me a bit risky tactic which is taken place by ambitious managers; All the players, even forwards come back very fast to the defence line after attack and look for goal chances by sudden attacks. But empty spaces during counter-attack give goal facility to the opponent.

renanmelosp
10/09/2018
BR
1
points

For me, Lukako was the player of the week, scoring twice before the break. Helping your team with a great victory.


renanmelosp
10/09/2018 18:16
Brazil
Manchester United
1

For me, Lukako was the player of the week, scoring twice before the break. Helping your team with a great victory.

harryadam's picture
harryadam
07/09/2018
VN
137
points

i love liverpool
mohamed salah
roberto firmino


harryadam's picture
harryadam
07/09/2018 15:07
Vietnam
Liverpool
137

i love liverpool
mohamed salah
roberto firmino

milos
06/09/2018
RS
2663
points

My vote for the player of the week goes for Eden Hazard .I agree with your choice for the team of the week and goal of the week.As a fan of Man Uth I could say Lukaku broke the deadlock last week and I am happy about that.


milos
06/09/2018 07:22
Serbia
Manchester United
2663

My vote for the player of the week goes for Eden Hazard .I agree with your choice for the team of the week and goal of the week.As a fan of Man Uth I could say Lukaku broke the deadlock last week and I am happy about that.

Zaid
05/09/2018
IN
63
points

Today is 5th September and here in India, we all celebrate teachers day every year on this day. So, I will take a moment to express my gratitude to our two lovely teachers here - Jack and Rich. I absolutely fell in love with this podcast the first time I heard it. I never thought that football can be a medium for learning English. So, kudos to the person who came up with the premier skills English idea, and kudos to Jack and Rich for their amazing contribution to the society and the world. We all hope you will continue to deliver it and help us grow and learn the language. I only have one regret that why I didn't find this podcast earlier.
Looking forward to hearing from both of you and always waiting for the next episode.


Zaid
05/09/2018 18:03
India
Manchester United
63

Today is 5th September and here in India, we all celebrate teachers day every year on this day. So, I will take a moment to express my gratitude to our two lovely teachers here - Jack and Rich. I absolutely fell in love with this podcast the first time I heard it. I never thought that football can be a medium for learning English. So, kudos to the person who came up with the premier skills English idea, and kudos to Jack and Rich for their amazing contribution to the society and the world. We all hope you will continue to deliver it and help us grow and learn the language. I only have one regret that why I didn't find this podcast earlier.
Looking forward to hearing from both of you and always waiting for the next episode.

Rich's picture
Rich
05/09/2018
ES
594
points

Hi Zaid,

Thanks for your lovely message. We both really appreciate your feedback. It's great to hear from listeners who have enjoyed the podcast and equally importantly found it useful for their language learning. Don't forget to spread the word if you think others would benefit from the podcast, too!

Happy Teachers' Day and all the best!

Rich - The Premier Skills English Team

P.S. All our podcasts are in the podcast section so you can always go back and listen, although it might take a long time as there are about 150!


Rich's picture
Rich
05/09/2018 23:11
Spain
Liverpool
594

Hi Zaid,

Thanks for your lovely message. We both really appreciate your feedback. It's great to hear from listeners who have enjoyed the podcast and equally importantly found it useful for their language learning. Don't forget to spread the word if you think others would benefit from the podcast, too!

Happy Teachers' Day and all the best!

Rich - The Premier Skills English Team

P.S. All our podcasts are in the podcast section so you can always go back and listen, although it might take a long time as there are about 150!

Zaid
05/09/2018
IN
63
points

This week I agree with all your choices. Though, I'm not sure about Southampton because I haven't seen them play yet. I guess they must've done great to be worthy of this award but I think Manchester United could have been the team of the week. Simply because they bounced back in some style after two consecutive defeats and despite so much negativity surrounding the club they came out on top at Turf Moor. They delivered a solid performance away from home and now they go into the international break with some relief.


Zaid
05/09/2018 17:50
India
Manchester United
63

This week I agree with all your choices. Though, I'm not sure about Southampton because I haven't seen them play yet. I guess they must've done great to be worthy of this award but I think Manchester United could have been the team of the week. Simply because they bounced back in some style after two consecutive defeats and despite so much negativity surrounding the club they came out on top at Turf Moor. They delivered a solid performance away from home and now they go into the international break with some relief.

RafaelRC's picture
RafaelRC
05/09/2018
BR
663
points

This week I watched two matches, Leicester 1-2 Liverpool and Chelsea 2-0 Bournemouth, I was really impressed especially with the defensive improve at Liverpool this season and with Jorginho's match, very good sign for Blues.

The only award that I would change is goal of the week, for me Aubameyang’s goal was more beautiful.

This week Traore really broke the deadlock.


RafaelRC's picture
RafaelRC
05/09/2018 01:10
Brazil
Arsenal
663

This week I watched two matches, Leicester 1-2 Liverpool and Chelsea 2-0 Bournemouth, I was really impressed especially with the defensive improve at Liverpool this season and with Jorginho's match, very good sign for Blues.

The only award that I would change is goal of the week, for me Aubameyang’s goal was more beautiful.

This week Traore really broke the deadlock.

Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
04/09/2018
DZ
325
points

Again, I totally agree with your choices, but I think that Hazard deserves player of the week award.


Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
04/09/2018 17:28
Algeria
Liverpool
325

Again, I totally agree with your choices, but I think that Hazard deserves player of the week award.

elghoul's picture
elghoul
04/09/2018
DZ
3988
points

I saw Kyle Walker's goal on live. What a chance for me! It was like I was kicking the ball with him.

I must agree that Watford were brilliant and Troy Deeney whose name is not familiar for me would deserve the week award.

Congratulations to Southampton. They were happy beating the infortunate Crystal Palace.

Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock for City this week.

 


elghoul's picture
elghoul
04/09/2018 13:49
Algeria
Manchester City
3988

I saw Kyle Walker's goal on live. What a chance for me! It was like I was kicking the ball with him.

I must agree that Watford were brilliant and Troy Deeney whose name is not familiar for me would deserve the week award.

Congratulations to Southampton. They were happy beating the infortunate Crystal Palace.

Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock for City this week.

 

Leaderboard

Top Scorers
RankNameScore
1Alex_from_Ukraine6577
2mobeckham6539
3hsn5558
4wsanta5086
5kwesimanifest4779
6Liubomyr4417
7elghoul3988
8assemjuve3705
9aragorn19863557
10Gergő Nagy3396
Country ranking
RankNameScore
1Colombia74676
2Ukraine33869
3Spain29476
4Serbia27426
5Brazil23472
6Albania20578
7Vietnam20455
8Turkey20109
9Macedonia19074
10Bosnia and Herzegovina16333
Club ranking
RankNameScore
1Manchester United146812
2Liverpool111415
3Chelsea90247
4Arsenal86350
5Manchester City58856
6Tottenham Hotspur19474
7Newcastle United10625
8West Ham United7671
9AFC Bournemouth4915
10Crystal Palace4539

Level

3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Goals

Improve your football English.

Practise your listening skills.

Make your prediction for next week's big Premier League match.