Matchweek 6 - Against the run of play

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 6 in the Premier League.
 
Rich: And not only that, 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: Liverpool go clear at the top.

Jack: Liverpool have won their first six matches in the league since 1990. The Reds beat Southampton 3-0 and after Chelsea’s nil-nil draw with West Ham means they are the only team with a 100% record this season. 

Rich: City smash five past Cardiff.

Jack: City recovered from a shock Champions League to record their biggest win of the season. It finished 5-0 with goals from Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and two from Riyad Mahrez - his first goal in a Manchester City shirt. 

Rich: Wolves make their point at Old Trafford.

Jack: Wolverhampton continued their good start to the season with a well-earned point against Manchester United. United took the lead against the run of play through Fred’s first goal for the club, but Wolves fought back and deservedly equalised when Joao Moutinho scored a brilliant goal.

Rich: Wolves look very good for a team that have just been promoted, don’t they?

Jack, Yes, they do. They’ve drawn against both Manchester clubs now.

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 this week are collocations and phrases with the word ‘play’.

Rich: The words and phrases are: against the run of play, play on, in play, out of play, build-up play, play the ball and play it safe.

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

Rich: The easiest ones are probably in play and out of play. These phrases are used in a football match to say when the ball is active or not active.

Jack: Sometimes players argue whether a ball is in play or out of play; especially if a goal has been scored.

Rich: We don’t use out of play for offside like in some languages. Out of play is used when the ball goes off the pitch.

Jack: Play on is a phrase that is used by the referee a lot. It means continue playing. 

Rich: It is usually used when the player with the ball has been fouled but still has the ball and is in good position on the pitch. The referee will say ‘play on’.

Jack: Build-up play describes the action before a goal is scored. The passes and possession by the team that has scored.

Rich: You often hear something like there was some great build-up play before the goal.

Jack: In the headlines, I said ‘United scored against the run of play’. This phrase is used when a team scores despite the other team playing better than them.

Rich: Play the ball is another useful football phrase. Someone might say ‘play it’ which means make he pass now.

Jack: We also use it when there is a bad tackle. If we think it was an accident we might say ‘he played the ball not the man’.

Rich: This means that he tried to get the ball but got the player by accident.

Jack: The final phrase is ‘play it safe’ which can be used in and out of football. It means not to take any risks. 

Rich: In football, a team might play safe when they are winning. This would mean being more defensive and not attacking too much.

Rich: OK, your challenge now is to listen and see if you can hear any of these phrases in the rest of this podcast. 

Jack: The words you need to listen for are: against the run of play, play on, in play, out of play, play the ball, build-up play and play it safe.

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: Not everyone agreed last week. Rafael Robson said we should have chosen West Ham as Team of the Week instead of Liverpool.

Rich: Milos from Serbia said we should have chosen Granit Xhaka’s goal for Arsenal as Goal of the Week.

Jack: And Sabanoleg and Liubomyr from Ukraine thought we should have chosen West Ham and Ukraine striker, Andriy Yarmolenko as Player of the Week.

Rich: Keep the comments coming. It’s good to hear from all of you.

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

Rich: David De Gea made some good saves for Manchester Utd and Aaron Lennon was great for Burnley, but it has got to be a Manchester City player, hasn’t it?

Jack: A 5-0 away win. Sergio Aguero was great and Ilkay Gundogan brilliant but we’re going to give our Player of the Week award to Raheem Sterling. He pulled the Cardiff defence apart.

Rich: Now, Team of the Week. We could go for City again or maybe Wolves but we’re going to go with Burnley.

Jack: It’s always good to get your first win of the season but Burnley did it in style. A 4-0 win against Bournemouth who were flying high near the top of the table.

Rich: And finally our Goal of the Week. Alexandre Lacazette scored a nice goal for Arsenal, City’s goals were superb and James Madison scored a great free-kick for Leicester.

Jack: But we’re going to go with Joao Moutinho strike for Wolves against Manchester Utd. It came after some lovely build-up play too! 

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 West Ham - Chelsea match.

Jack: Well done to Yucel from Qatar and Richard J for predicting a draw but I see that you Rich were the only person to predict the correct result again!

Rich: It finished 0-0 and that means I am top of the Premier Skills English Prediction league. Make sure you enter your predictions this week to see if you can beat me!

Jack: Remember you have to be logged in and registered to make your predictions. It’s free so you can do it now! What match are you looking at this week, Rich?

Rich: It’s a big one. This weekend Chelsea play Liverpool. The two teams are still unbeaten in the Premier League and Liverpool have won every match they have played this season. Chelsea dropped their first points last weekend against West Ham so will be looking to bounce back. But, it will be a difficult challenge against the Reds who are in great form. If Hazard plays well for Chelsea, the Blues could do a lot of damage and always get a goal against the run of play, but I think Liverpool’s front three are firing at the moment and I think they will come out on top. Final score: Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool

Jack: I think you might be a bit overconfident. I’m going to play it safe and go for a draw - 1-1. Hazard for Chelsea and Salah for Liverpool. 

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.