This Week: The best of the best

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

In This Week, we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

If you are listening to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify you can also visit the Premier Skills English website at britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish where you’ll be able to download the podcast.

On the Premier Skills English website, you can read the transcript and join the Premier Skills English community by completing a language task in the comments section. This will really help you remember the new words and phrases from the stories from the Premier League.

This week I’m looking back at the season. I have five questions about the performance of the teams and players in the Premier League. I’m going to try to answer:

• Which team was the best team?
• Who was the best player?
• Who was the best goalkeeper?
• Who was the best manager?
• Which team was the worst team?

Please, do bear in mind, I am an English teacher and not a proper football pundit. My answers to these questions are my own and based on very little evidence. Really, I am more interested in the opportunity to talk about language. So, if you think I’m wrong, if you disagree with my answers, please do leave your own answers to these questions in the comments section on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

Today, I am going to talk about some interesting vocabulary and I’m also going to focus on superlatives and some phrases we use with superlative adjectives.

If you want to read and listen at the same time, there’s a transcript on the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website as well as the language challenge and football phrase.

But before I get to the stories and vocabulary, I want to give you the answer to last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week, here’s one more chance to guess now.

This week, the football phrase is a ********* ****. This is very common football vocabulary but it’s quite difficult to explain. A ********* **** is used when a team has a free kick near the goal. The defending players stand in a line as a physical shield between the person taking the free kick and the goal. I think you need to be quite brave to be in a ********* **** because you can’t duck out of the way if the ball is flying right at you. You just have to stand there and let it hit you.

Congratulations to Ryohei from Japan, Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam, Hasan from Turkey, Renan from Brazil, Satt from Japan, Xiaohang from China, Ken from Japan, Alex from Ukraine and Denis2000 from Belarus.

You all worked out that the phrase I was looking for was defensive wall. Keep listening till the end of the podcast for a new football phrase.

Now it’s time for this week’s first question.

Which team was the best team?

Manchester City were the best team in the Premier League this season. Arsenal did very well and looked like they might top the league, but from the start, the smart money was on City. They were so strong this season, winning 28 matches and racking up a goal difference of 61, 16 more goals than second place Arsenal. This was the Manchester team’s third league victory in a row and the fifth win in 6 seasons.

Captain Ilkay Gundogan said: "To have won this trophy three times in a row and five times in six years is incredible. That quality and consistency helps sum up what Manchester City stands for and ensures the club will continue to strive for success going forward.”

They have the FA Cup final on Saturday and the UEFA Champions League Final the week after and they are the bookmakers favourites in both those matches so could well do the treble.

In today’s language focus, I want to concentrate on superlative phrases. There are some other phrases that I am going to talk about, but I’m most interested in superlatives.

In this first part of the podcast, I said that Manchester City were the best team in the League. When we use superlatives, we often use phrases with in. The best in the league, the best in the country, the best in the world, the best in the business, the best in her field. The preposition in has so many uses. In this case, I think it simply shows how something is arranged. So when there is a way to talk about a group of people or teams, each member can be said to be in the group. The Premier League is a group of teams and a group of players. The teams and players are in the Premier League, they are part of the League so when we talk about superlatives in this group, you can say in the league.

In this part of the podcast, I used two phrases that come from gambling. I don’t gamble, but apparently 40% of the adult population in the UK do and lots of phrases that come from gambling are common in English. I said that the smart money was on City, So when you gamble, you risk money on the outcome of a sporting event or a game of chance if you’re in a casino. You risk your money by placing a bet on the outcome of an event. When you have placed your bet, you can say that you have money on an outcome. So you might have money on City winning the FA Cup. We use the phrase ‘the smart money is on’ to say what we think the most likely result will be. It’s like saying, this outcome is what smart people would bet their money on. Although Arsenal were in the lead in the season, if you looked at their fixtures at the end of the season, you could see that they had a lot of hard matches to play. It would not have been smart to bet money on Arsenal at that point, even though they were ahead. The other phrase I used was the bookmakers’ favourites. A bookmaker is the person who gives odds on sporting events and accepts bets. These days almost all bookmakers are big businesses so if someone says that they are going to the bookmakers’ or the bookies’ they probably mean a shop on the highstreet where they can gamble.

At the bookmakers, there will be odds on different outcomes. Odds are the ratios of money paid to winnings that the bookie will pay if you place a bet on a specific outcome. Odds are expressed as a ratio of the money you will get back if you win to the money you wager or risk. It’s a bookmaker's job to know what the outcome of these events are so that they can offer the right odds so that they make money. If a bookmaker thinks that a team is going to win, they will offer you less money for your stake than if they think the team is going to lose. In any sporting event, the outcome that the bookmaker thinks is most likely is called the favourite. So in a horse race, one horse and rider will be favourite and in a football match, one team will be favourite. In both the FA Cup final and Champions League Final, Manchester City are the bookmakers favourite to win.

I used the phrasal verb to rack up. This means to get more and more of something, usually one at a time. I think it comes from snooker where a player's points are recorded on a rack on the wall. Every ball that a snooker player pots wins them points that they can record on their rack.

I said that this was Manchester City’s third victory in a row. A row is a line of objects. If you put things in a row, you arrange them in a line. If things happen in a row, they happen one after the other or consecutively. Manchester City won in 2021, 2022 and now in 2023. That’s three wins in a row.

Gundogan said that Manchester City’s consistency was one of the things that helped them win. If something is consistent, it stays the same. Manchester City’s form has been great for the whole season, in fact, they haven’t really had much of a drop in form for years, Even when big players have left or retired. They have stayed consistent. They have performed consistently. Their consistency has helped them win.

To strive for something means to try really hard to achieve something. It means to make a great effort to do something. We use the verb strive for things that take a long time to achieve. So a club might strive for success or a child might strive to fulfil their potential. You wouldn’t strive to make a cup of tea, even if it was very difficult. We strive when we work hard for more important reasons.

OK. That was a lot of language from this first part. The language focus parts after the next questions won’t be quite as long.

Who was the best player?

The Premier League has so many great players that this next claim is even more surprising.

This season, one player has stood out as the best player by far. He has broken the record for the most goals scored in a single season, winning the golden boot. He’s been awarded the Premier League’s Player of the season award as well as the Young Player of the season award. He’s won the Premier League and may well win the Champions League and the FA Cup all in his first season in English football. He is of course the phenomenal Erling Haaland. When you’re playing alongside Kevin de Bruyne and Jack Grealish, earning the Player of the year Award is an amazing achievement. He really is far and away the best.

In this part of the podcast, I used two superlative phrases. I said that one player was the best player by far. We often use expressions of distance with superlatives to say that something is the best in its group and is also a lot better than its nearest rival. Erling Haaland scored an amazing 36 goals. That was 6 more than his nearest rival. He also racked up 8 assists and was dominant up front for City.

No other player came close. Harry Kane scored a lot of goals, but Haaland has made a much bigger impression on the league this season. As well as saying that something is the best by far, you can say that something is the best by a long way, the best by miles and the best by a long shot. I used another phrase to say the same thing when I said that he is far and away the best. If something is far and away the superlative, it just means the same as saying it’s the best by a long way.

In this part of the podcast, I used the adjective phenomenal. Phenomenal means really successful, so successful that nobody expected it. It’s quite a strange adjective. The noun phenomenon means something that can be seen or observed. It’s often used by scientists to talk about strange things that happen. You might read about a rare phenomenon or a bizarre or strange phenomenon. The word is also used to talk about very successful people, groups and companies if they have a large cultural impact. So the Beatles can be described as a phenomenon. The adjective phenomenal is similar. It’s used to describe people and groups when they are surprisingly successful and have a great impact.

Let’s move on to the next question.

Who was the best goalkeeper?

OK - so the first two answers were easy. This one is a little more difficult. You see, David de Gea has won the Premier League’s Golden Glove award for keeping the most clean sheets. Throughout his campaign, he played in every match and managed an impressive 17 clean sheets. However, when you’re standing at the back for Manchester United, you don’t have to work as hard to keep a clean sheet. For example, both Jose Sa at Wolves and Ederson at Manchester City kept 11 clean sheets, but Ederson only made 46 saves. Jose Sa had to make 108 saves to achieve the same number of clean sheets.

I think that the best goalkeeper in the Premier League is arguably the goalkeeper who made the most saves and this season, that was Brentford’s David Raya who kept a very respectable 12 clean sheets and made 154 saves. This season has been the best of his career and Brentford’s 9th place finish was in no small part down to Raya’s performance in goal.

In this part of the podcast, I said that this season has been the best of his career. I could have said that it was the best in his career, but the best of his career sounded more natural to me. I think, if David Raya’s career was finished, I could have said the best in his career. In describes the best in terms of its position in his career. As his career is still going, it doesn’t feel right to say the best in his career without adding so far, the best in his career so far. But the best of his career, just relates to his career.

I said that goalkeepers don’t have to work as hard when they are standing in the Manchester United goal. This is a comparative phrase. Whenever I’ve taught this language in the past, I’ve always taught as + adjective + as. He is not as tall as his brother. Or in phrases like David De Gea didn’t save as many goals as David Raya. However, I only used half of the phrase. I think that this is probably more common. The comparative is implied. You don’t have to work as hard as other goalkeepers. It wasn’t necessary to make the full comparison.

The last item I want to focus on is the adverb arguably. I said that the best goalkeeper is arguably the goalkeeper who made the most saves. The adverb arguably means that I think that I can prove or demonstrate that this statement is true, or at least that there are good reasons for thinking that it is true. It’s quite strange in its use because it can be used to say that you think something is true and you can prove it and it’s also used to say that you have good reasons to say something but you’re not sure or are not prepared to state it. Listen to these two examples: David Raya is arguably the best goalkeeper of the season. David Raya is arguably the best goalkeeper of the season.

OK! Time for the next question.

Who was the best manager?

It would be easy to say Pep Guardiola. He’s led Manchester City to victory again. He’s constantly being praised by his players for the way he adapts to face different challenges and brings new tactics and ideas to the team. He is undoubtedly an amazing manager. However, I think that there’s an argument to say that Roberto De Zerbi has done a better job at Brighton this year.

So ... I was looking at the costs of the players at the different teams. There’s a website called Transfermarkt that has a list of what Premier League teams have paid for their squads. These costs aren’t just for this season, they are the total transfer costs to the teams for the players, I think. Anyhow, if you compare how much the clubs spent with the number of points they earned, you can work out a cost per point. The average cost per point in the Premier League this season is £7.9 million. Pep Guardiola’s winning team cost the club £967 million so that works out at £10.9 million per point so slightly more than average. Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton managed to accumulate 62 points for only £111 million which works out at £1.8 million per point. A bargain! So ... Guardiola might be the best manager, but De Zerbi is the best value for money by far.

In this part of the podcast, I use the phrase there’s an argument to say, this means that I think there are good reasons for saying something, but I’m not prepared to say that this is something I believe. It’s similar to the second use for arguably. I think that people use this phrase to make a suggestion that they are not 100% in favour of. You can say there’s and argument to say something or that there’s an argument for something.

I used the phrase “the best value for money by far” when describing Roberto De Zerbi because of what he managed to do with a squad that cost almost a tenth what Chelsea have paid. This was another example of by far to emphasise the gap in value for money between De Zerbi and the other managers.

OK! Time for the last question.

Which team was the worst team?

Well, Southampton scored the fewest points and finished at the bottom of the table. Second from the bottom Leicester is the most valuable club to have ever been relegated so you could argue that that makes them the worst team of the season. Though their market value is not that much less than Southampton.

The team that did the least with the most, the team that underperformed the most is Chelsea. The Blues spent even more than City and ended up in 12th place. They managed to earn 44 points, but at the eye-watering cost of £22.6 million pounds per point. This made Chelsea easily the worst performing club for the money.

On balance, my vote for the worst team of the season goes to Leicester. Last season, they finished in 8th so they have dropped 10 places this season. That’s the biggest drop this season.

The last superlative phrase I want to talk about today is easily the worst. You can also say easily the best or easily the biggest. If you use easily with a superlative adjective, you are saying that the gap in whatever quality you are describing between the biggest and the next biggest or the best and next best or the worst and next worst is so large that it’s easy to identify the worst, best or biggest. If you compare teams by what they spent per point, Chelsea performed much much worse than any other team so in those terms, that you can say they were easily the worst team.

Today, I have described lots of vocabulary and different superlative expressions. Listen to the questions and answers one more time to hear the language in context.

Which team was the best team?

Manchester City were the best team in the Premier League this season. Arsenal did very well and looked like they might top the league, but from the start, the smart money was on City. They were so strong this season, winning 28 matches and racking up a goal difference of 61, 16 more goals than second place Arsenal. This was the Manchester team’s third league victory in a row and the fifth win in 6 seasons.

Captain Ilkay Gundogan said: "To have won this trophy three times in a row and five times in six years is incredible. That quality and consistency helps sum up what Manchester City stands for and ensures the club will continue to strive for success going forward.”

They have the FA Cup final on Saturday and the UEFA Champions League Final the week after and they are the bookmakers favourites in both those matches so could well do the treble.

Who was the best player?

The Premier League has so many great players that this next claim is even more surprising.

This season, one player has stood out as the best player by far. He has broken the record for the most goals scored in a single season, winning the golden boot. He’s been awarded the Premier League’s Player of the season award as well as the Young Player of the season award. He’s won the Premier League and may well win the Champions League and the FA Cup all in his first season in English football. He is of course the phenomenal Erling Haaland. When you’re playing alongside Kevin de Bruyne and Jack Grealish, earning the Player of the year Award is an amazing achievement. He really is far and away the best.

Who was the best goalkeeper?

OK - so the first two answers were easy. This one is a little more difficult. You see, David de Gea has won the Premier League’s Golden Glove award for keeping the most clean sheets. Throughout his campaign, he played in every match and managed an impressive 17 clean sheets. However, when you’re standing at the back for Manchester United, you don’t have to work as hard to keep a clean sheet. For example, both Jose Sa at Wolves and Ederson at Manchester City kept 11 clean sheets, but Ederson only made 46 saves. Jose Sa had to make 108 saves to achieve the same number of clean sheets.

I think that the best goalkeeper in the Premier League is arguably the goalkeeper who made the most saves and this season, that was Brentford’s David Raya who kept a very respectable 12 clean sheets and made 154 saves. This season has been the best of his career and Brentford’s 9th place finish was in no small part down to Raya’s performance in goal.

Who was the best manager?

It would be easy to say Pep Guardiola. He’s led Manchester City to victory again. He’s constantly being praised by his players for the way he adapts to face different challenges and brings new tactics and ideas to the team. He is undoubtedly an amazing manager. However, I think that there’s an argument to say that Roberto De Zerbi has done a better job at Brighton this year.

So ... I was looking at the costs of the players at the different teams. There’s a website called Transfermarkt that has a list of what Premier League teams have paid for their squads. These costs aren’t just for this season, they are the total transfer costs to the teams for the players, I think. Anyhow, if you compare how much the clubs spent with the number of points they earned, you can work out a cost per point. The average cost per point in the Premier League this season is £7.9 million. Pep Guardiola’s winning team cost the club £967 million so that works out at £10.9 million per point so slightly more than average. Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton managed to accumulate 62 points for only £111 million which works out at £1.8 million per point. A bargain! So ... Guardiola might be the best manager, but De Zerbi is the best value for money by far.

Which team was the worst team?

Well, Southampton scored the fewest points and finished at the bottom of the table. Second from the bottom Leicester is the most valuable club to have ever been relegated so you could argue that that makes them the worst team of the season. Though their market value is not that much less than Southampton.

The team that did the least with the most, the team that underperformed the most is Chelsea. The Blues spent even more than City and ended up in 12th place. They managed to earn 44 points, but at the eye-watering cost of £22.6 million pounds per point. This made Chelsea easily the worst performing club for the money.

On balance, my vote for the worst team of the season goes to Leicester. Last season, they finished in 8th so they have dropped 10 places this season. That’s the biggest drop this season.

The last superlative phrase I want to talk about today is easily the worst. You can also say easily the best or easily the biggest. If you use easily with a superlative adjective, you are saying that the gap in whatever quality you are describing between the biggest and the next biggest or the best and next best or the worst and next worst is so large that it’s easy to identify the worst, best or biggest. If you compare teams by what they spent per point, Chelsea performed much much worse than any other team so in those terms, that you can say they were easily the worst team.

Task

Your task this week is to answer the questions yourself. Make sure you take a look at the other answers in the comments section and let other people know if you agree with them. The questions are:

• Which team was the best team?
• Who was the best player?
• Who was the best goalkeeper?
• Who was the best manager?
• Which team was the worst team?

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about some of the language from today’s podcast. In today’s podcast, I used some phrases with superlatives. I’m going to read you three sentences with superlatives but with a word missing. For each sentence, you need to complete the gap with the correct preposition.

Number 1. I’ve had the best time ___ my life.

Number 2. This shop sells the best sausage rolls ___ the UK.

Number 3. We should hire Jo. She’s the best applicant ___ far.

Leave your answers to the language challenge in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Football phrase

Now it’s time for this week's football phrase.

This week, the football phrase is a ***** *****. This means that a team has not conceded a goal in a match. I said that David De Gea was awarded this year’s Golden Glove award for 17 ***** ******. Sports reporters used to record the scores for a match on paper. I guess they used different pieces of paper for each team. If they got to the end of a match without having to mark the paper with any goals, then the team would have a ***** *****. That’s what it said on a BBC article about the phrase, anyway.

If you know the answer, be sure to leave it in a comment on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

Before I finish, I am going to go through the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1. After the death of pop and soul legend Tina Turner was announced, fans gathered to honour her legacy at the Tina Turner Museum in Tennessee.

Number 2. Spectacular images have captured dolphins at Portland Harbour putting on a show for a group of rowers.

Number 3. Fullback Luke Ayling admits Leeds United have lost their edge in the Premier League

Number 4. A wet start to the day wasn’t enough to keep music-lovers away from the final day of the South Tyneside Festival. The crowds were not put off by the weather.

Number 5. Scientists from the University of Warwick have identified some of the most common behaviours of aggressive drivers.

Number 6. On Sunday, a testimonial match was held at Champion Hill for long-serving Dulwich Hamlet legend Nyren Clunis.

Number 7. Marcus Rashford gives anxious Manchester United fans a glimmer of hope over the extent of his injury as their star forward says there's 'plenty more in the tank'

Number 8. However, no matter how impressive the recovery, a season without silverware is still seen as a failure at Juventus.

Number 9. Erik ten Hag's men took full advantage of slip-ups from rivals Newcastle and Tottenham the previous day to climb to third in the table.

And that’s all I have time for today. Before I finish, I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast useful, and I hope all of you stay fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.