Matchweek 5

Introduction

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to our Monday round-up section on Premier Skills English.

Jack: Hi there. I’m Jack. Every Monday, we discuss last weekend’s action, the best players, the best matches, Fantasy Football, and make some predictions for next weekend.

Rich: We want you to practise your English and interact with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Jack: You can do this on the Premier Skills English website or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page - if that’s where you are listening to us.

Rich: Let’s get on with this week’s roundup!

Headlines

Rich: City hit Watford for six.

Jack: Manchester City scored six times away from home to go top of the Premier League. Sergio Aguero got a hat-trick and Gabriel Jesus, Nicolas Otamendi and Raheem Sterling also got on the scoresheet.

Rich: Lukaku shines for Rooney’s return.

Jack: Romelu Lukaku scored against his old club, but it was an unhappy return to Old Trafford for Wayne Rooney. United won 4-0 against Everton with Antonio Valencia, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Lukaku and Anthony Martial scoring the goals.

Rich: Barry equals Premier League playing record.

Jack: West Brom’s Gareth Barry made a record-equalling 632nd Premier League appearance on Saturday. He equals Ryan Giggs record and should break the record when West Brom play Arsenal next weekend.

Rich: Barry made his debut last century - 1998.

Jack: A long time ago - I was still at school!

Rich: An impressive achievement! It was a very good weekend for Manchester. Only alphabetical order separates the two teams at the top of the table.

Jack: Both are unbeaten and have had great starts to the season. Guardiola against Mourinho. It’s very exciting. 

Rich: City have scored 15 goals in their last three games.

Jack: Sergio Aguero is amazing. He seems to get better and better. He’s now the top non- European Premier League scorer of all-time and he’s only two goals away from becoming Manchester City’s all-time top goalscorer.

Rich: Definitely a player for your fantasy football teams!

Matchweek Awards

Rich: Right, every Monday, we give out three matchweek awards. Player of the Week, Team of the Week and Match of the Week.

Jack: In the comments section, you need to tell us if you agree with our choices …

Rich: Last week, not all of you agreed with our choices.

Jack: AssemJuve from Palestine thought Chelsea Leicester rather than Brighton West Brom was the Match of the Week.

Rich: Milos from Serbia and Khaldoun83 from Algeria also thought I made a bad choice. They thought the best game in matchweek 4 was City v Liverpool.

Jack: What about this week, Rich?  

Rich: I’m going to start with the Player of the Week. Surely, nobody can disagree. It’s Manchester City’s, Sergio Aguero. A sixth Premier League hat-trick and, as I said earlier, a fantastic player. He’s now got 175 goals for City. Brilliant.

Jack: Good choice, but there are other contenders. What about Manchester Utd’s Antonio Valencia. He scored a cracker. Or an Arsenal defender? I don’t get to say this very often, but the Arsenal defence was superb against Chelsea.

Rich: I’ve made my decision but I will enjoy the discussion in the comments section if people disagree.

Jack: Our next award is for Team of the Week …Newcastle, Bournemouth, Southampton and Manchester Utd all had good wins but …

Rich: Our Matchweek 5 Team of the week goes to …  Manchester City!

Jack: 6-0 away from home. You can’t argue with that!

Rich: Our third and final award is for the match of the week. Our match of the weekend was Liverpool v Burnley. 

Jack: It was a real giants against minnows match. Everyone expected Liverpool to win, but Burnley got a great point.

Rich: Liverpool had 35 shots but could have lost at the end when Burnley had a shot cleared off the line.

Jack: Let us know if you agree with our choices in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Football Definition

Rich:  Burnley had a shot cleared off the line. What does this mean?

Jack: It means Burnley had a shot on target, it beat the keeper, but a Liverpool defender kicked or headed it away just before it went in the net!

Fantasy Football

Rich: What’s been happening in fantasy football this week, Jack?.

Jack: The top scoring player last week was Sergio Aguero with 20 points. Congratulations if you had him in your team. Did you have him as your captain? That would have got you 40 points!

Rich: In the Premier Skills League, the Premier Skills team moved down to 6th place. Not bad. Remember if you have any recommendations for the team, let us know.

Jack: Who’s this week’s Fantasy Premier Skills team of the week?

Rich: The Premier Skills Fantasy Premier League Team of the Week for Matchweek 5 was Modric Team managed by Mhmd Saad from Egypt. He scored exactly 100 points!

Jack: 100 points! An impressive score!

Matchweek Prediction

Jack: Last week’s prediction was Chelsea v Arsenal. You thought Chelsea would win, Rich. But, it finished in a goalless draw. A special well done to Khaldoun83 from Algeria who thought this match would finish in a draw. Which match are you going to look at in Matchweek 6, Rich?

Rich: The big match this weekend is Southampton v Manchester Utd. Southampton have had quite a good start to the season and won away at Palace last weekend. Manchester Utd are at the top and looking to continue their impressive start. It’s a difficult away match for United and they are without Paul Pogba for a few weeks and have a difficult trip to Moscow after this match. I think there might be a surprise and I’m going to go for a final score of Southampton 1-1 Manchester United.

Jack: We’ll see … we want you to make your predictions at the bottom of the page on the website. Are you a good predictor? 

Rich: Right, that’s all we have time for. I hope you have enjoyed this Monday round-up. Don’t forget to join the discussion at the bottom of this page.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.