Matchweek 5 - Convincing Wins

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 Matchweek 5 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: Five out of five for Chelsea and Liverpool.

Jack: Chelsea and Liverpool are the only teams with a 100% record after five Premier League matches. Liverpool beat Spurs 2-1 and Chelsea saw off Cardiff by four goals to one. Watford lost their 100% record when they were beaten 2-1 by Manchester Utd.

Rich: Cherries hit four against Leicester.

Jack: Bournemouth are up to fifth place after a fine 4-2 win at home to Leicester. Two goals from Scotland’s Ryan Fraser helped the Cherries earn a 4-0 lead before Leicester scored two late consolation goals to give the scoreline a respectable look.

Rich: The Hammers are up and running.

Jack: West Ham got their first points of the season with a convincing win away to Everton. Ukrainian forward, Andriy Yarmolenko scored his first two goals for West Ham before Everton clawed one back on the stroke of half-time. There was no comeback for Everton though, and a Marko Arnautovic strike finished Everton off.

Rich: A good way for West Ham to get off the mark and a good way to celebrate the West Ham manager’s birthday.

Jack: Yes, it was Manuel Pellegrini's 65th birthday and guess what he said after the match …

Rich: That the win was the best birthday present for him?

Jack: How did you guess?

Vocabulary alert!

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

Jack: The words and phrases this week are all connected to results and how goals affect final scores.

Rich: The words and phrases are: scoreline, a consolation goal, a comeback, a convincing win, to finish off and to claw back.

Jack: We’ll start with the easier ones and then look at the more difficult ones.

Rich: The final scoreline had a more respectable look.

Jack: The scoreline is a phrase that means the result or final result. It’s usually used in the media and is semi-formal. You might hear something like: ‘the match was much closer than the scoreline suggests’ in a newspaper report.

Rich: This means that a match might have finished 4-0 but in reality, it was a very close game.

Jack: When we are speaking though, we usually say ‘What’s the score?’ or ‘What was the score?’

Rich: Leicester scored two late consolation goals. 

Jack: A consolation goal is when a team that is losing badly scores a goal at a very late stage in the game. The goal can’t affect the final scoreline so is just a consolation - something to make you feel better when you are unhappy.

Rich: There was no comeback for Everton.

Jack: In football, a comeback is when a team that is losing, wins the game in the end.

Rich: A comeback can also be used to describe someone who starts doing something again after a long time.

Jack: A footballer can make a comeback after injury or a singer can make a comeback after a long time out of the business.

Rich: West Ham got a convincing win against Everton.

Jack: This is a common phrase in football. A convincing win is usually when a team wins by two or more goals and plays well, too. The opposite would be a close scoreline. 

Rich: If a match ends with a close scoreline, maybe the winning team was lucky. You’re not sure which team played the best. 

Jack: If you convince someone, you make someone believe that something is true. After a convincing win, there is no doubt which team played the best.

Rich: Marko Arnautovic’s goal finished off Everton.

Jack: In football, to finish a team off means to end their challenge. Arnautovic’s goal finished off Everton because it made the scoreline 3-1 and this made it too difficult for Everton to come back into the match.

Rich: We also use finish off to mean score a goal at the end of a passing or tactical move. The team passed, passed, passed and the striker finished it off at the back post. 

Jack: Everton clawed one back just before half-time.

Rich: To claw back is a phrasal verb that means to make a lot of effort to get something back that you have lost. 

Jack: Animals like tigers and eagles have claws so you can imagine the effort needed to claw something back.

Rich: OK, your challenge now is to listen for these words in the rest of this podcast. 

Jack: The words you need to listen for are: the scoreline, a consolation goal, a comeback, a convincing win, to finish off and to claw back.

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 Renanmelosp from Brazil said we should have chosen Manchester Utd’s Romelu Lukaku for Player of the Week, but Milos from Serbia thought it should have been Chelsea’s, Eden Hazard.

Rich: And RafaelRC from Brazil thought we should have chosen Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal for Arsenal as the Goal of the Week.

Jack: Let’s keep these discussions going. Right, let’s start with this week’s Player of the Week.

Rich: Roberto Firmino was good for Liverpool, Ryan Fraser was brilliant for Bournemouth and Andriy Yarmolenko brilliant for West Ham.

Jack: But there is only one winner this week … Chelsea’s Eden Hazard. He scored a hat-trick and that dummy for his first goal was brilliant.

Rich: I think the Cardiff defender is still running the wrong way!

Jack: Let’s move on to our Team of the Week. Good wins for Chelsea, both Manchester clubs, Wolves, Bournemouth, Palace, Arsenal and West Ham.

Rich: But our Team of the Week is Liverpool for their 2-1 win against Tottenham.

Jack: Yes, going to a top of the table rival and getting a win is a big result. They lost 4-1 last season so that is a big difference.

Rich: And finally, our Goal of the Week. Granit Xhaka scored a cracking free-kick for Arsenal and Ryan Fraser’s first goal for Bournemouth was a lovely curling effort.

Jack: But our Goal of the Week goes to that man Hazard. His first goal was brilliant. He went past two defenders like they weren’t there and hit the ball into the bottom corner.

Rich: Let’s see if our listeners agree with our choices.

Matchweek Prediction 

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

Rich: Lots of you made predictions last week for the Tottenham - Liverpool match.

Jack: Well done to RichardJ from Ecuador and Luibomyr and Sabanoleg from Ukraine for predicting a 2-1 win for Liverpool.

Rich: You can check how you are doing in our Prediction League table by clicking the link on the Premier Skills English page below this podcast.

Jack: And you can make your predictions for this week too, but remember you have to be logged in and registered to make your predictions. It’s free so you can do it now! What match are you looking at this week, Rich?

Rich: I’m going to look at a big London derby. West Ham at home to Chelsea. You might think that this will be another convincing win for Chelsea, but I think West Ham will make things difficult for their London rivals as they try to claw themselves back up the league table after a poor start to the season. West Ham will battle and defend and I think Chelsea will struggle to finish West Ham off so I’m going for a final scoreline of West Ham 0-0 Chelsea. 

Jack: That’s a bit boring. I think West Ham will take the lead before Chelsea mount a comeback and win 2-1.

Rich: 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.