Matchweek 11 - Sour grapes

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 last weekend 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: City hit Southampton for six.

Jack: Manchester City walloped Southampton 6-1 to open up a two-point gap at the top of the table. Southampton just couldn’t handle City’s attacking play. An own goal, two from Raheem Sterling and one each from Sergio Aguero, Leroy Sane and David Silva saw City get their biggest win of the season.

Rich: Chelsea beat Palace to keep up the pace at the top.

Jack: Chelsea are up to second place after a 3-1 win against Crystal Palace. Chelsea went ahead in the first half when Alvaro Morata scored, but Palace equalised early in the second half with a lovely goal by Andros Townsend. Chelsea struggled to break Palace down but within a minute of Eden Hazard coming on as a substitute, Morata scored his second and five minutes later Pedro scored Chelsea’s third.

Rich: Newcastle win at last.

Jack: Newcastle got their first win of the season at the eleventh attempt. One goal was enough to beat Watford and also lift the Magpies out of the relegation zone.

Jack: We haven’t mentioned the Arsenal - Liverpool match? It finished 1-1.

Rich: No, I’m a bit disappointed we had a goal disallowed unfairly and hit the post.

Jack: Sounds like sour grapes to me. I thought Arsenal were the better team and definitely deserved their equaliser.

Vocabulary alert!

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

Jack: The six words and phrases this week are:  to hit a team for six, to open up a gap, to not be able to handle something, to struggle to do something, to break a team down and sour grapes. 

Rich: They’re all quite difficult this week let’s start with: to hit a team for six.

Jack: This phrase means to score six goals against a team and at the same time beat them very comfortably. 

Rich: The phrase actually comes from cricket. A six is the best shot you can do in cricket to score the most points.

Jack: It also has a more general meaning. You can be hit for six by a piece of sad or shocking news which means you are very upset by something.

Rich: The next phrase is to open up a gap. City have opened up a two-point gap at the top of the table. 

Jack: This phrase is often used in football and describes the gap between two places or parts of the table. You could say Newcastle have opened up a gap between themselves and the relegation places.

Rich: The next phrase is to struggle. We have spoken about this before but it’s very common in football English. To struggle means to find something difficult.

Jack: It is often used with our next phrase ‘to break down’ which means to score or make chances against a strong defence.

Rich: So, you often hear people saying ‘they struggled to break the other team down’.

Jack: The next phrase is to handle which is often used in the negative in football English. Southampton couldn’t handle City’s attacking play.

Rich: It means to be able to control or manage something.

Jack: The final phrase is my favourite this week. It’s sour grapes. 

Rich: When I said I thought Liverpool should have won against Arsenal, Jack said it sounded like sour grapes.

Jack: It’s used when someone thinks another person is jealous or being unsporting because something happened that they didn’t want to happen.

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: Last week we also asked you about goals that shouldn’t have counted; that should have been disallowed.

Rich: Thaitn from Vietnam remembered Diego Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ goal for Argentina against England and Ahmed Adam remembered a goal by Cristiano Ronaldo in the Champions League in 2017.

Jack: Keep the comments coming - it’s a great way to practise your English.

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

Jack: All of the Leicester players showed great emotional strength to play in their win against Cardiff but on an individual level Paul Pogba was good for Manchester United and Tottenham’s Erik Lamela was good for Spurs, especially in the first half of their game.

Rich: But our Player of the Week is West Ham Utd’s, Felipe Anderson. Two goals for the Brazilian and he was the star player in West Ham’s 4-2 win against Burnley.

Jack: Right, now Team of the Week. A last-gasp win for Manchester United and a big win for Manchester City but our Team of the Week is Leicester City. A difficult week for the club ended with the team back in action and a good win although the three points were not of real importance.

Rich: And finally, Goal of the Week, Andros Townsend’s goal for Palace was a good hit and Javier Hernandez’s chip for West Ham was great.

Jack: But our Goal of the Week goes to Everton’s Richarlison. The way he went around the goalkeeper he made it look so easy.

Matchweek Prediction 

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

Rich: Lots of you made predictions last time for the Arsenal - Liverpool match and a special well done to Liubomyr from Ukraine who got the score exactly right. A one-all draw.

Jack: Which match are you going to predict this week, Rich?

Rich: The big match in Matchweek 12 is the Manchester Derby. It’s Manchester City against Manchester United at the Etihad. If you remember last season, United won 3-2 after being 2-0 down at half-time which stopped City winning the Premier League title on that day. It was a brilliant attacking display from United. Can I See the same thing happening? No, I don’t think so. United will go to City and defend and try to play on the counter-attack. I think City will also be looking for some revenge for last season’s defeat. My prediction is Manchester City 3-1 Manchester United.

Jack: I think United will park the bus and come away with a draw. I think it’ll finish nil-nil.

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.