The Battle at the Top

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: Hi everyone. I’m Jack and every week we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: This week, we’re going to talk about Leicester City and their amazing Premier League performances this season. The language focus is on how we use ‘such’ and ‘so’.

Jack: Rich will have another Premier League prediction later, but first we have our 20th and final ‘What’s my Team?’ riddle for you all.

Rich: Yes, it’s your last chance to win a Samsung Galaxy tablet. We’d like to thank all of you who have entered the competition, we know that some of you have entered all 20 competitions and got the correct answer each time. We wish there could be prizes for all of you.

Jack: Next week, we’re going to ask you for your ideas for our next competition. But, for now, here’s this week’s Premier League fan. Listen to ?Jennie’s riddle and try to work out what’s her team.

Jennie: Can it happen? Of course it can happen. I’m really starting to believe we can do it. All season, fans, journalists and everyone else have been saying that our bubble is going to burst, but I think we’re going all the way. Am I nervous? Yes. Do I think I’m dreaming. Yes, but dreams can come true, can’t they?

Rich: If you’ve been following the Premier League this season, you’ll know the answer to that one.Jack: I wonder how many people will look at our previous podcasts to work out which team it is!

Jack: What was the answer to last week’s riddle Rich?

Rich: Last week, Jason spoke about Bournemouth. I think it was a tricky one. A few of you said other clubs that are on the coast like Sunderland and Swansea City, but Bournemouth is more famous for holidays.

Jack: And Arsenal had a great 2-0 win against Bournemouth at the weekend. If you knew that I was an Arsenal fan, that may have helped you guess the right team, too. We have selected a winner at random from the correct answers and the nineteenth winner of the What’s my team? competition is Aleksandar, a Manchester Utd fan from Montenegro. Congratulations Aleksandar! We’ll be in contact with you this week.

Rich: Well done Aleksandar! Last week we asked you if you were happy with your team’s FA Cup draw. Most of you said that you were, especially Arsenal and Manchester Utd fans. Arsenal fans - Aragorn1986 from Montenegro, Nikosonris from Ukraine, and Shunka and Rafayel from Armenia were all happy with Arsenal’s home draw against Hull City. And Manchester Utd fans -  Edmond Eloyan, Sonchina and Karlos all from Armenia are happy with Man Utd’s draw against Shrewsbury Town from the 3rd level of English football.

Jack: We’ve been getting lots of comments from Armenia recently. That’s great to see - maybe Armenia will be on our country leaderboard soon!

Rich: Last week, we spoke about word teams, which are groups of words that are connected to each other by their meaning. We asked you to tell us words that you could put in the word team for ‘football stadium’.

Jack: Quite a few of you suggested words, for example mixxalych_UKR from Ukraine added the words pitch, players, referees, coaches, fans, stands, seats, crossbars, and net to his word team. And Amaral from Albania added 'ground', 'steward', 'commentator', 'fans', and 'players'  to the word team.

Rich: We really love word teams and think they’re a great way to learn new vocabulary. A lot of you also got in touch to tell us how you learn vocabulary. I really liked an idea from Nikosonris from Ukraine. He says that he writes English words on stickers and sticks them to objects in his flat.

Jack: That’s a good idea. I did that when I was trying to learn Italian. Last week, we asked all of you how you record vocabulary. 26% of you said that you created word teams...

Rich: That’s because 32% of you said that you don’t record any vocabulary. As a teacher, I think it’s important to use your mobile phone or cards to help with new words and I always encourage my students to record new vocabulary.

Jack: There were lots of interesting ideas in the comments in podcast 35 and you can always go back and continue the conversation about vocabulary there. If you like someone’s idea, let them know.

Jack: What’s been happening in the Premier League this week, Rich?

Rich:  Manchester Utd drew 1-1 with Chelsea - a last minute equaliser for Chelsea. As you said earlier, Arsenal won 2-0 at Bournemouth and Spurs moved up to second place with a 1-0 win at home to Watford.

Jack: I think you’re missing a game there, Rich.

Rich: I haven’t forgot the team of the moment. This week’s podcast is going to focus on this season’s amazing Premier League story - Leicester CIty. Leicester won 3-1 away to Manchester City on Saturday, to move 6 points ahead of City and, after the rest of the weekend’s matches, 5 points clear of Spurs and Arsenal. And there are only 13 matches left.

Jack: I think something changed this weekend.  People are really starting to really believe that Leicester can do it; that Leicester City can win the Premier League. But why are they doing so well?

Rich: Before we look at this season I think we have to talk about why it would be such a surprise result for Leicester to win the Premier League. The first reason why it would be so surprising is where they were this time last year. If you look at the Premier League table, Leicester were last (20th) and looked certain to be relegated.

Jack: I remember. They were so bad, but then they won 7 of their last 9 matches to complete one of the most amazing relegation escapes in Premier League history. It was such an amazing escape. They’ve just carried on winning this season, too.

Rich: Let’s look at some of the language we used there. We used the words ‘such’ and ‘so’. Both these words can be used to mean ‘very’, or to a great degree. We can say Leicester City are so good or Leicester City are such a good team. The difference is that after ‘so’ we used an adjective and after ‘such’ we used a noun.

Jack: Riyad Mahrez scored such a good goal against City at the weekend. It was so good that I think it will be named goal of the month. Why else would it be such a shock for Leicester to win the Premier League?

Rich: Well, since the Premier League started only five clubs have ever won the title; the two Manchester clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers. Blackburn won it over 20 years ago and they had such a lot of money given to them that it wasn’t such a surprise that they won it.

Jack: I remember, Alan Shearer played for Blackburn and scored lots of goals.

Rich: Leicester were founded, which means to start a new organisation or business, in 1884; that’s over 130 years ago and they’ve never won a league title.

Jack: What’s changed? Why might they do it this year and pull off one of the biggest ever football shocks?

Rich: Nice phrasal verb that one. To pull off something means to succeed in doing something difficult. We might say pull off a business deal or Greece pulled off a big surprise when they won the European Championships.

Jack: Yes... but how do you think Leicester are going to pull this one off?

Rich: I think there are three main reasons; the players, the manager and the style of play. Let’s look at the players first. Jamie Vardy is the Premier League’s top goalscorer and Riyad Mahrez is the Premier League’s most creative player, he’s scored 14 goals and made 10 assists.

Jack: Vardy was working in a factory a few years ago and Mahrez was playing in the French second division just two years ago. But it’s not just these two players. Players like N’Golo Kante, Robert Huth and Kasper Schmeichel are also having great seasons.

Rich: What I like best is that they work together as a team and they work so hard. They are more or less the same group of players that were bottom of the table last season. The only other thing that has changed is the manager. The Italian, Claudio Ranieri joined the club.

Jack: I really like him. He’s very relaxed and keeps the pressure off the players. He doesn’t want to talk about Leicester winning the Premier League. I think this is probably a good idea.

Rich: Yes, not thinking about winning the title is a good way to keep the pressure off the players. I think the final thing that is helping Leicester is their style of play. They give the other team the ball! I know that this sounds strange, but they defend, defend and defend and then attack really quickly. This is called the counter-attack. I was watching Leicester’s match the other day and at one point they only had 27% possession.

Jack: So, do you think they’re going to win the title, Rich?

Rich: I don’t know. My team - Liverpool aren’t going to win the title this year so I’d love it if Leicester won it. I think it would be great for the Premier League if an underdog could win the Premier League. If Leicester can win it, it’s a dream, a fairytale and it means anyone can win it - not just the big teams.

Jack: I know what you’re saying but my team, Arsenal can still win it and of course I want them to. I’d be happy for Leicester to finish second which would still be an amazing achievement.

Rich: This week, we’ve got another vote for you. Who do you think is going to win the Premier League? Vote for the team you think will win at the bottom of the page.

Jack: Which brings us to our questions for you this week. Question 1. Why are Leicester surprising everyone this season? Is it the players, the team, their style of play, or something else that is happening?

Rich: Question 2. Do you think it would be good for the Premier League if Leicester won the title?

Jack: Question 3. We looked at the words ‘so’ and ‘such’ in this week’s podcast, Can you give us some example sentences using so + adjective and such + noun? If you’d like us to correct your language, please write ‘correct me’ at the beginning of your comment. Then, if there’s a mistake, we’ll reply and let you know.

Rich: We don’t always correct your comments because we want you to feel comfortable writing comments and not like you’ve got a teacher standing over you. But we know that some of you would like to have your language corrected.

Jack: If you see a comment where someone has asked for a correction and you think you know how to correct the language, please reply with your correction. We’ll still have a look, but it would be great if everybody could help each other.

Jack: Did anybody make the right prediction last week, Rich? I know that you got it horribly wrong!

Rich: Yes, I know, but a few of you predicted a Leicester win. Well done to Safwan2000 from Saudi Arabia, NikaChelsea25 from Georgia, AssemJuve from UAE, Mixxalych from Ukraine, Aleksandr and Ruslanjon from Uzbekistan, and Shunka from Armenia.

Jack: I think I know which match you’re going to make a prediction about this week.

Rich: Yes, it’s your team, Arsenal at home to the Premier League leaders, Leicester City. Arsenal got back to winning ways last weekend and Leicester had a stunning win against Manchester City. I predicted that Leicester would lose against City but they surprised everyone again. When will a Leicester win stop being a surprise? Arsenal will attack and Leicester will defend and try to score on the counter-attack. Leicester’s confidence is so high that I am going to go for another Leicester win. Final score: Arsenal 1 - 2 Leicester City

Jack: It’s such an important match for Arsenal, we have to win and I think we will.

Rich: Right, anyway that’s it for today - we’ve run out of time! Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to the competition, our questions, your predictions and anything you want to say about the website or football English in the comments below.

Jack: Don’t forget if you sign in, you can score points to see if you can get your club, your country and your name to the top of our leaderboard.

Rich:  Bye for now and enjoy your football!