Matchweek 27: Come off the bench

Introduction

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

Rich: Hi there. I’m Rich. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

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

Rich: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

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

Rich: Don’t forget that we also have our weekly Premier Skills English Podcast that is released every Friday. Every week we help you with some different vocabulary or an aspect of grammar.

Jack: Our latest podcast is called Understanding Grammar: Unless with conditionals and in the roleplay, we talk about our predictions for the rest of the Premier League season. You can find it on the Premier Skills English homepage, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and most other podcast platforms now. 

Rich: Let’s start this week’s show by reviewing the Premier League action from Matchweek 27.

Headlines

Jack: Chelsea get the better of Spurs in London derby.

Rich: Chelsea beat Spurs 2-1 to cement their place in the top four. Olivier Giroud made the most of a rare start for the hosts when he scored the opening goal for the Blues. Marcos Alonso added a second and deserved their victory against a flat Tottenham side who had been given hope when Antonio Rudiger put the ball in his own net with a minute left.

Jack: City go clear in second.

Rich: Manchester City moved seven points clear of third-placed Leicester CIty with a 1-0 win at the King Power Stadium. Jamie Vardy hit the post in the first half for the hosts and both sides were guilty of missing chances in an open game. Kasper Schmeichel saved Sergio Aguero’s penalty in the second half which means CIty have missed five of their last seven spot-kicks. The miss was forgotten when Gabriel Jesus came off the bench to score the winner with ten minutes left.

Jack: Fernandes gets United ticking.

Rich: Bruno Fernandes scored his maiden goal in Manchester United colours as he opened the scoring in a 3-0 home win against Watford. Fernandes’ spot-kick was the first goal scored by United at home in 236 minutes of Premier League football. They soon added two more - Anthony Martial scored with a great bit of skill and Mason Greenwood smashed a shot into the Watford net. United are up to fifth place in the table.

Jack: There were also good wins for Wolves, Burnley, Arsenal, Southampton and Crystal Palace.

Vocabulary alert!

Rich: In our vocabulary alert, we look at some football English that we used in the headlines.

Jack: Our six words phrases this week are: make the most of something, flat, an open game, to come off the bench, a maiden goal, and a spot-kick.

Rich: Let’s start by talking about Chelsea’s 2-1 win against Tottenham. We said that Olivier Giroud made the most of a rare start for Chelsea. 

Jack: To make the most of something is a phrase that is used to describe getting the maximum use or advantage out of something.

Rich: Olivier Giroud hasn’t played much for Chelsea this season but he started at the weekend and he scored and played well. He made the most of his opportunity to play.

Jack: The next word we’re looking at is flat. We said that Chelsea deserved victory against a flat Tottenham side.

Rich: If we describe a team or performance as flat it means it lacks energy. 

Jack: I think this comes from the use of flat when talking about fizzy drinks - drinks with bubbles. When your coca-cola has been open for too long, and there aren’t any bubbles left, it’s gone flat. There’s no fizz or energy.

Rich: Tottenham were a bit flat - their performance lacked energy, fizz and sparkle maybe because they had played in the Champions League just a few days before the Chelsea game.

Jack: Let’s move on to the Leicester - Manchester City match. We described the match as an open game.

Rich: An open game is a match with lots of chances for both sides. It’s open because either side has a chance to score and win.

Jack: Gabriel Jesus came off the bench to score the winner for City against Leicester.

Rich: To come off the bench means to play as a substitute. Substitutes sit on the substitute’s bench and come on as a substitute when needed by the manager.

Jack: Finally, let’s talk about Manchester United’s win against Watford. We said that Bruno Fernandes got his maiden goal in United colours.

Rich: A maiden goal. This means he got his first goal for Manchester United. We use the word maiden to talk about firsts.

Jack: It’s often used to talk about first journeys by planes and ships. We can talk about an aeroplane’s maiden flight or a ship’s maiden voyage.

Rich: Our final phrase this week is a spot-kick. Sergio Aguero missed a spot-kick against Leicester.

Jack: A spot-kick is a penalty - a penalty kick. The spot is where you take the penalty from.

Rich: An easy phrase that one but spot-kicks are not so easy for Manchester City. They’ve missed five of their last seven spot-kicks.

Jack: OK, so there are the six words and phrases. Listen to this part of the podcast again if you are not sure how to use them.

Rich: The words and phrases are: make the most of something, flat, an open game, to come off the bench, a maiden goal, and a spot-kick.

Football Awards

Jack: Right, every week, we give out three Matchweek awards. 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. We could go with United’s Bruno Fernandes, Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud or  Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Rich: They all scored and had great games for their clubs but we’re going to go with Wolverhampton Wanderer’s Diogo Jota. He scored two against Norwich to add to his hat-trick against Espanyol three days earlier. 

Jack: Now Team of the Week. Great wins for Wolves, Burnley and Manchester United but we’re going to go with Chelsea.

Rich: Chelsea beat Spurs and are looking more comfortable in fourth place.

Jack: Finally, our Goal of the Week. We’re going to leave this one to you. We’re going to give you three options and you need to tell us which you think was best.

Rich: Goal number one: Anthony Martial for Manchester United against Watford. A beautiful drag-back and wonderful chip over the keeper.

Jack: Goal number two: Marcos Alonso for Chelsea against Tottenham. A fantastic strike by the Spaniard

Rich: Goal number three: Dominic Calvert-Lewin for Everton against Arsenal. An overhead kick has got to get on the list for best goal of the week, right?

Jack: OK. Those are our three options. Did you see them? Which do you think was the best? 

Rich: Let us know your choice and if you agree with our other weekly awards in our comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Matchweek Prediction 

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

Rich: Last week I went for a draw between Chelsea and Spurs so I got that wrong.

Jack: Let’s see if you can do any better this week. Which match are you predicting?

Rich: We have matchweek 28 and Everton against Manchester United and Tottenham against Wolves look interesting but it’s also the League Cup FInal next weekend where the first bit of this season’s silverware gets decided. The Final is Manchester City against Aston Villa. City are overwhelming favourites to win the League Cup again - it will be the fourth time in five seasons if they do it. It will be a massive shock if Villa win it but they have players like Jack Grealish who can produce magic moments so they have a chance. Can Villa shock CIty? I don’t think so. Final score: Manchester City 2-0 Aston Villa.

Jack: I’d like Villa to shock City but I don’t think they will either 2-1 to City after extra-time.

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 on the Premier Skills English website. 

Jack: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, don’t forget to leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you. 

Rich: If you have any questions or comments or suggestions for the podcast or anything football or English related, you can leave them on the website in the comments section or you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football