Matchweek 18 - Business as usual
Matchweek 18 - Business as usual
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 prediction competition and have lots of football English for you to learn.
Transcript
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. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.
Rich: We want you to use and practise these phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.
Jack: 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.
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 our headlines!
Headlines
Rich: Palace shock City at the Etihad.
Jack: Crystal Palace beat Manchester City 3-2 at the Etihad in this season’s biggest shock result so far. It looked like business as usual when Ilkay Gundogan put City ahead in the first half but back came Palace with two goals in two minutes. In the second half, Palace extended their lead and a Kevin de Bruyne consolation goal was not enough for the hosts. It was Palace’s first win at City for 28 years!
Rich: Liverpool go clear at the top.
Jack: Liverpool moved four points clear at the top of the table after a 2-0 win away at Wolves. Mohamed Salah inspired the Reds to victory with a goal in the first half and an assist for Virgil van Dijk in the second.
Rich: Spurs turn on the style at Everton.
Jack: Tottenham won 6-2 away at Everton and are very much in the Premier League title race. Two goals each for Harry Kane and Son Heung Min and one each from Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli saw Tottenham record their biggest win of the season.
Rich: A big weekend of Premier League matches, but the week’s biggest Premier League news was Manchester United parting company with Jose Mourinho. Mourinho left United after two and a half years at the club.
Jack: He has been replaced with a fan favourite. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be the caretaker manager until the end of the season.
Rich: Solsjkaer scored 126 goals in 10 years as a United player and the caretaker manager got off to a winning start last weekend - a 5-1 win at Cardiff.
Jack: It was the first time United had scored five in a Premier League match since Alex Ferguson was manager.
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: caretaker manager, to part company with, to record, an assist, host, and business as usual.
Rich: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the caretaker manager for Manchester United. A caretaker manager is someone who takes charge on a temporary basis. He is not the permanent manager. That decision will be taken at the end of the season.
Jack: Manchester United have parted company with Jose Mourinho. To part company with someone means to end a relationship with someone. It’s used in football English as a polite way of saying someone has left or lost their job.
Rich: Spurs recorded their biggest win of the season. It means to write down or keep information for the future.
Jack: Listen to this sentence. Spurs recorded their biggest win of the season. It’s a record!
Rich: Record can be a verb or record can be a noun. Listen again. How does the pronunciation change? Spurs recorded their biggest win of the season. It’s a record!
Jack: The next word is assist. This is a noun to describe the action that helped make the goal, for example passing the ball to the player who scored. Assist can be used as a verb too but not usually when we’re talking about football.
Rich: Kevin De Bruyne’s goal was not enough for the hosts.
Jack: A host is a person or organisation that invites guests to their house or event. When a football club plays at home they are the hosts while the other team are the visitors or guests.
Rich: Our final phrase is business as usual. This is a phrase we use when things are continuing as they always do. Manchester City usually win so when City scored first a commentator might say it’s business as usual.
Jack: Have a think about these phrases and see if you can use any of them in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
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: Let’s start with Player of the Week. There were some good performances in the Premier League last weekend. Mesut Ozil was back in the team for Arsenal, Jamie Vardy got the winner for Leicester at Chelsea, Paul Pogba was back to his best for Manchester United and the whole Crystal Palace team played well against Manchester City.
Rich: But our Player of the Week is Son Heung Min for Tottenham Hotspur. Two goals and two assists in a 6-2 away win for your team. You don’t get better than that!
Jack: What about our Team of the Week? A really difficult choice this week. Manchester United’s performance against Cardiff was fantastic as was Leicester’s win at Chelsea and Tottenham’s win at Everton.
Rich: But, we’ve got to go for Crystal Palace. A 3-2 win at Manchester City. No one would have predicted that result before kick off.
Jack: Finally, Goal of the Week. This came down to a choice between Andros Townsend’s volley for Crystal Palace and Anthony Martial’s goal for Manchester United against Cardiff.
Rich: We've chosen Martial’s goal as Goal of the Week. It was a fabulous one-touch passing move. A great team goal.
Matchweek Prediction
Jack: Every week, Rich predicts the result of one Premier League match and we want you to make your prediction, too.
Rich: This week we want you to predict the results of two matches one match for Matchweek 19 and another for Matchweek 20.
Jack: Let’s make two quick predictions.
Rich: OK, Matchweek 19 sees Manchester City go to Leicester City. It could be another difficult match for CIty after that Palace defeat. Leicester won at Chelsea last weekend and will want to win in front of their own fans and against Riyad Mahrez. I’m actually going for a draw in this one. I think it’ll finish one all.
Jack: I think City will win 2-0.
Rich: Matchweek 20 sees Liverpool take on Arsenal.
Jack: Yes, Liverpool take on Arsenal. A really difficult match this one for Liverpool. I can’t really see anything other than an Arsenal win. I think it’ll finish 3-0 to the Gunners.
Rich: Very funny. A solid home win: 2-0 to Liverpool.
Jack: 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.
Rich: 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.
Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.
Results
Matchweek 18:
Arsenal 3-1 Burnley
Bournemouth 2-0 Brighton
Chelsea 0-1 Leicester City
Huddersfield Town 1-3 Southampton
Manchester City 2-3 Crystal Palace
Newcastle 0-0 Fulham
West Ham 0-2 Watford
Cardiff City 1-5 Manchester United
Everton 2-6 Tottenham
Wolves 0-2 Liverpool
Vocabulary Alert
Football English
We looked at six words phrases in this episode. Take a look at the phrases in bold. Do you undertand what they mean?
The week’s biggest Premier League news was Manchester United parting company with Jose Mourinho.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be the caretaker manager until the end of the season.
A 6-2 away win saw Tottenham record their biggest win of the season.
Mohamed Salah inspired the Reds to victory with a goal in the first half and an assist for Virgil van Dijk in the second.
It looked like business as usual when Ilkay Gundogan put City ahead.
A Kevin de Bruyne consolation goal was not enough for the hosts.
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.
Matchweek Awards
Do you agree with our choices?
Player of the Week: Son Heung Min (Tottenham)
Team of the Week: Crystal Palace
Goal of the Week: Anthony Martial (Manchester United)
The Big Matches
Leicester City v Manchester City
Liverpool v Arsenal
We have two predictions for you this week: Matchweek 19 and Matchweek 20. Rich and Jack have made their predictions. Do they surprise you?
What are your predictions? 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?
Form
Premier League Predictions: Leicester v Man City & Liverpool v Arsenal
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?
Four Questions
What do you think?
Jack and Rich have spoken about Matchweek 17 in the Premier League. Now it's your turn! Have a look at the questions and write your answers in the comments section below.
- Rich and Jack chose Son Heung Min of Tottenham as Player of the Week. Do you agree?
- Jack and Rich selected Crystal Palace as their Team of the Week. Do you agree?
- Rich picked Anthony Martial's goal for Manchester United as Goal of the Week? Did you see it? Do you agree?
- Use this week's vocabulary: Do you think having a caretaker manager is a good idea? When was the last time your club parted company with their manager? How did you feel?
Don't forget to make your prediction for this week's Big Match!
Let's get the conversation started and create a community!
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Comments
16/02/2021
points
PHRASES;
• Team finished this season successfully although they had been trained by a caretaker manager.
• According to last year financial figures which weren’t profitable board of directors decided to part company with general director.
• She recorded her ever best degree at the high jumping. It was also new world record.
• Business as usual Dad paid the bill of the restaurant.
16/02/2021 17:03
Tottenham Hotspur
5558
PHRASES;
• Team finished this season successfully although they had been trained by a caretaker manager.
• According to last year financial figures which weren’t profitable board of directors decided to part company with general director.
• She recorded her ever best degree at the high jumping. It was also new world record.
• Business as usual Dad paid the bill of the restaurant.
01/01/2019
points
I would agree with your first two choices,but i disagree with you choosing Martial goal as goal of the week,i think Townsend scored one of the best five goals in the year of 2018.
01/01/2019 10:16
Liverpool
3705
I would agree with your first two choices,but i disagree with you choosing Martial goal as goal of the week,i think Townsend scored one of the best five goals in the year of 2018.
01/01/2019
points
The last time Liverpool parted company with a manager was with Brendan Rodgers in 2015,that was the start of the Klopp era which is still continuing.
01/01/2019 10:14
Liverpool
3705
The last time Liverpool parted company with a manager was with Brendan Rodgers in 2015,that was the start of the Klopp era which is still continuing.
28/12/2018
points
We had great games last weekend. I definitely agree with your choices of Son as Player of the Week and Crystal Palace as Team of the Week, but let me record my choice to Goal of the Week. Although Martial's goal had been amazing with all those passes before the finalization, I still prefer the Andros Townsend's stunning goal for Palace. For me, it is the goal of the season until now.
Having a caretaker manager can be a good idea when a team replaces its manager during the season and there are no available good names free on the market. It reminds me of Brazil where most of the teams part company with their managers during the season. Few of them keep the manager until the end and having a caretaker manager is very ordinary here.
28/12/2018 15:23
Tottenham Hotspur
615
We had great games last weekend. I definitely agree with your choices of Son as Player of the Week and Crystal Palace as Team of the Week, but let me record my choice to Goal of the Week. Although Martial's goal had been amazing with all those passes before the finalization, I still prefer the Andros Townsend's stunning goal for Palace. For me, it is the goal of the season until now.
Having a caretaker manager can be a good idea when a team replaces its manager during the season and there are no available good names free on the market. It reminds me of Brazil where most of the teams part company with their managers during the season. Few of them keep the manager until the end and having a caretaker manager is very ordinary here.