Club Profiles

AFC Bournemouth club badge
Arsenal
Aston Villa Club badge
Brentford badge
Brighton and Hove Albion club badge
Burnley FC club badge
Chelsea club badge
Crystal Palace badge
Everton
Liverpool badge
Manchester City badge
Manchester United badge
Newcastle United club badge
Nottingham Forest club badge
Sheffield United badge
Spurs badge
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Joao Moutinho scores for Wolves against Manchester United.

Matchweek 6 - Against the run of play

Matchweek 6 - Against the run of play

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 new prediction competition and have lots of football English for you to learn.

Transcript

If the listening is a bit difficult, try listening and reading at the same time.
Read the transcript and listen at the same time.

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 6 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: Liverpool go clear at the top.

Jack: Liverpool have won their first six matches in the league since 1990. The Reds beat Southampton 3-0 and after Chelsea’s nil-nil draw with West Ham means they are the only team with a 100% record this season. 

Rich: City smash five past Cardiff.

Jack: City recovered from a shock Champions League to record their biggest win of the season. It finished 5-0 with goals from Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and two from Riyad Mahrez - his first goal in a Manchester City shirt. 

Rich: Wolves make their point at Old Trafford.

Jack: Wolverhampton continued their good start to the season with a well-earned point against Manchester United. United took the lead against the run of play through Fred’s first goal for the club, but Wolves fought back and deservedly equalised when Joao Moutinho scored a brilliant goal.

Rich: Wolves look very good for a team that have just been promoted, don’t they?

Jack, Yes, they do. They’ve drawn against both Manchester clubs now.

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 collocations and phrases with the word ‘play’.

Rich: The words and phrases are: against the run of play, play on, in play, out of play, build-up play, play the ball and play it safe.

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

Rich: The easiest ones are probably in play and out of play. These phrases are used in a football match to say when the ball is active or not active.

Jack: Sometimes players argue whether a ball is in play or out of play; especially if a goal has been scored.

Rich: We don’t use out of play for offside like in some languages. Out of play is used when the ball goes off the pitch.

Jack: Play on is a phrase that is used by the referee a lot. It means continue playing. 

Rich: It is usually used when the player with the ball has been fouled but still has the ball and is in good position on the pitch. The referee will say ‘play on’.

Jack: Build-up play describes the action before a goal is scored. The passes and possession by the team that has scored.

Rich: You often hear something like there was some great build-up play before the goal.

Jack: In the headlines, I said ‘United scored against the run of play’. This phrase is used when a team scores despite the other team playing better than them.

Rich: Play the ball is another useful football phrase. Someone might say ‘play it’ which means make he pass now.

Jack: We also use it when there is a bad tackle. If we think it was an accident we might say ‘he played the ball not the man’.

Rich: This means that he tried to get the ball but got the player by accident.

Jack: The final phrase is ‘play it safe’ which can be used in and out of football. It means not to take any risks. 

Rich: In football, a team might play safe when they are winning. This would mean being more defensive and not attacking too much.

Rich: OK, your challenge now is to listen and see if you can hear any of these phrases in the rest of this podcast. 

Jack: The words you need to listen for are: against the run of play, play on, in play, out of play, play the ball, build-up play and play it safe.

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: Not everyone agreed last week. Rafael Robson said we should have chosen West Ham as Team of the Week instead of Liverpool.

Rich: Milos from Serbia said we should have chosen Granit Xhaka’s goal for Arsenal as Goal of the Week.

Jack: And Sabanoleg and Liubomyr from Ukraine thought we should have chosen West Ham and Ukraine striker, Andriy Yarmolenko as Player of the Week.

Rich: Keep the comments coming. It’s good to hear from all of you.

Jack: Let’s start with this week’s Player of the Week.

Rich: David De Gea made some good saves for Manchester Utd and Aaron Lennon was great for Burnley, but it has got to be a Manchester City player, hasn’t it?

Jack: A 5-0 away win. Sergio Aguero was great and Ilkay Gundogan brilliant but we’re going to give our Player of the Week award to Raheem Sterling. He pulled the Cardiff defence apart.

Rich: Now, Team of the Week. We could go for City again or maybe Wolves but we’re going to go with Burnley.

Jack: It’s always good to get your first win of the season but Burnley did it in style. A 4-0 win against Bournemouth who were flying high near the top of the table.

Rich: And finally our Goal of the Week. Alexandre Lacazette scored a nice goal for Arsenal, City’s goals were superb and James Madison scored a great free-kick for Leicester.

Jack: But we’re going to go with Joao Moutinho strike for Wolves against Manchester Utd. It came after some lovely build-up play too! 

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 West Ham - Chelsea match.

Jack: Well done to Yucel from Qatar and Richard J for predicting a draw but I see that you Rich were the only person to predict the correct result again!

Rich: It finished 0-0 and that means I am top of the Premier Skills English Prediction league. Make sure you enter your predictions this week to see if you can beat me!

Jack: 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: It’s a big one. This weekend Chelsea play Liverpool. The two teams are still unbeaten in the Premier League and Liverpool have won every match they have played this season. Chelsea dropped their first points last weekend against West Ham so will be looking to bounce back. But, it will be a difficult challenge against the Reds who are in great form. If Hazard plays well for Chelsea, the Blues could do a lot of damage and always get a goal against the run of play, but I think Liverpool’s front three are firing at the moment and I think they will come out on top. Final score: Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool

Jack: I think you might be a bit overconfident. I’m going to play it safe and go for a draw - 1-1. Hazard for Chelsea and Salah for Liverpool. 

Rich: 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.

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.

Results

Matchweek 6:

Fulham 1-1 Watford

Burnley 4-0 Bournemouth

Cardiff City 0-5 Manchester City

Crystal Palae 0-0 Newcastle Utd

Leicester City 3-1 Huddersfield Town

Liverpool 3-0 Southampton

Manchester Utd 1-1 Wolves

Brighton 1-2 Tottenham

West Ham 0-0 Chelsea

Arsenal 2-0 Everton

Alexandre Lacazette scored a great goal for Arsenal in their 2-0 win against Everton.

Vocabulary Alert

Football English

We looked at phrases with 'play' in the podcast.Take a look at the words in bold. Do you undertand what they mean?

United took the lead against the run of play.

He played the ball not the man.

Wolverhampton's goal came after some lovely build-up play

I’m going to play it safe and go for a draw.

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.

James Maddison puts a free-kick in the top corner for Leicester in their 3-1 win against Huddersfield.

Matchweek Awards

Do you agree with our choices?

Player of the Week: Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)

Raheem Sterling played brilliantly for Manchester City in their 5-0 win at Cardiff.

Team of the Week: Burnley

Aaron Lennon scored his first goal for Burnley as the Clarets got their first win of the season against Bournemouth. It finished 4-0.

Goal of the Week: Joao Moutinho (Wolves)

Joao Moutinho celebrates his stunning equaliser at Old Trafford.

The Big Match

Chelsea v Liverpool

Rich's prediction for Matchweek six is Chelsea against Liverpool. Rich has predicted a 2-1 win for Liverpool while Jack has gone for a 1-1 draw.

What is your prediction? 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?

Formulário

Premier League Prediction: Chelsea v Liverpool

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?

See results table

Four Questions

What do you think?

Jack and Rich have spoken about Matchweek 6 in the Premier League. Now it's your turn! Have a look at the questions and write your answers in the comments section below.

  1. Rich and Jack chose Raheem Sterling of Manchester City as Player of the Week. Do you agree? 
  2. Jack and Rich chose Burnley as their Team of the Week. Do you agree?
  3. Rich chose Joao Moutinho's goal for Wolves as Goal of the Week? Did you see it? Do you agree?
  4. Use this week's vocabulary: Can you tell us about a goal that should have been disallowed because the ball was out of play?

Don't forget to make your prediction for this week's Big Match!

Let's get the conversation started and create a community!

Leave a comment

Log in to leave a comment

Comentários

hsn's picture
hsn
09/03/2022
TR
5552
points

Phrases
• Some social aid funds should be built up to remove poverty.
• This team eliminated against run of play at the play-off match.
• When a player made foul, she/he draw a circle in the air with hands to show to the referee it was an attempt to play the ball not the man.
• In my career life, it's my priority to play it safe because of unpredicted risks of the finance sector.


hsn's picture
hsn
09/03/2022 15:54
Turkey
Tottenham Hotspur
5552

Phrases
• Some social aid funds should be built up to remove poverty.
• This team eliminated against run of play at the play-off match.
• When a player made foul, she/he draw a circle in the air with hands to show to the referee it was an attempt to play the ball not the man.
• In my career life, it's my priority to play it safe because of unpredicted risks of the finance sector.

milos
28/09/2018
RS
2663
points

I agree with your choices for these week.Great game for Raheem Sterling.I hope these weekend is going to be good game for Liverpool.I am not so good in score prediction,but Rich is excellent.I mean is really tough to predict correct result.
Well done Rich.


milos
28/09/2018 08:19
Serbia
Manchester United
2663

I agree with your choices for these week.Great game for Raheem Sterling.I hope these weekend is going to be good game for Liverpool.I am not so good in score prediction,but Rich is excellent.I mean is really tough to predict correct result.
Well done Rich.

Richard J's picture
Richard J
27/09/2018
EC
2846
points

Hi everyone,
Well, I didn't watch any Premier League game last weekend so I can't talk about your decisions but anyway, about the game Chelsea vs Liverpool I consider it will be a very close game because, they don't want to lose points but I think Liverpool will win and will take revenge for the game that they lost in the EFL cup on Wednesday.


Richard J's picture
Richard J
27/09/2018 16:08
Ecuador
Liverpool
2846

Hi everyone,
Well, I didn't watch any Premier League game last weekend so I can't talk about your decisions but anyway, about the game Chelsea vs Liverpool I consider it will be a very close game because, they don't want to lose points but I think Liverpool will win and will take revenge for the game that they lost in the EFL cup on Wednesday.

RafaelRC's picture
RafaelRC
26/09/2018
BR
663
points

I agree with all your choices this week. This season has been amazing, one of things that I like a lot in PL is about the fouls, here in Brazil referees give an excessive number of fouls, but in PL they consider when play the ball.


RafaelRC's picture
RafaelRC
26/09/2018 11:14
Brazil
Arsenal
663

I agree with all your choices this week. This season has been amazing, one of things that I like a lot in PL is about the fouls, here in Brazil referees give an excessive number of fouls, but in PL they consider when play the ball.

Cityzen's picture
Cityzen
26/09/2018
GB
24
points

1. Sergio Aguero should obviously be the it, since he is City's all time leading goal scorer.
2. I don't agree since Burnley has only won 1 match
3. I think Leicester's free kick should be the goal of the week
4. I haven't seen any goals out of play, but I think that the free kick griezmann took shouldn't have been allowed- it was offside.


Cityzen's picture
Cityzen
26/09/2018 07:14
United Kingdom
Manchester City
24

1. Sergio Aguero should obviously be the it, since he is City's all time leading goal scorer.
2. I don't agree since Burnley has only won 1 match
3. I think Leicester's free kick should be the goal of the week
4. I haven't seen any goals out of play, but I think that the free kick griezmann took shouldn't have been allowed- it was offside.

elghoul's picture
elghoul
25/09/2018
DZ
3988
points

1. Great play for Raheem Sterling. He completely deserve his nomination.

2. I go for Burnley as team of the week.

3. I have seen some goals like the double Mahrez scored as a substitute but I missed Moutinho's one.

4. My favourite out of play goal which should have been disallowed is Henry qualifying goal on the tier against Ireland.


elghoul's picture
elghoul
25/09/2018 13:35
Algeria
Manchester City
3988

1. Great play for Raheem Sterling. He completely deserve his nomination.

2. I go for Burnley as team of the week.

3. I have seen some goals like the double Mahrez scored as a substitute but I missed Moutinho's one.

4. My favourite out of play goal which should have been disallowed is Henry qualifying goal on the tier against Ireland.

Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
24/09/2018
DZ
325
points

I disagree with your choices this week because I think that it is better to choose Manchester City as a team of the week as well as Riyad Mahrez as player of the week, the letter has scored his two first goals and delivered a good performance, when it comes to match of the week it is appropriate to choose Manchester United against Wolves.


Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
24/09/2018 18:20
Algeria
Liverpool
325

I disagree with your choices this week because I think that it is better to choose Manchester City as a team of the week as well as Riyad Mahrez as player of the week, the letter has scored his two first goals and delivered a good performance, when it comes to match of the week it is appropriate to choose Manchester United against Wolves.

Leaderboard

Top Scorers
RankNameScore
1Alex_from_Ukraine6562
2mobeckham6536
3hsn5552
4wsanta5086
5kwesimanifest4779
6Liubomyr4417
7elghoul3988
8assemjuve3705
9aragorn19863557
10Gergő Nagy3396
Country ranking
RankNameScore
1Colombia74670
2Ukraine33800
3Spain29306
4Serbia27426
5Brazil23326
6Albania20578
7Vietnam20405
8Turkey20047
9Macedonia19074
10Bosnia and Herzegovina16333
Club ranking
RankNameScore
1Manchester United146517
2Liverpool111048
3Chelsea90021
4Arsenal86213
5Manchester City58633
6Tottenham Hotspur19335
7Newcastle United10545
8West Ham United7637
9AFC Bournemouth4887
10Everton4533

Level

3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Goals

Improve your football English.

Practise your listening skills.

Make your prediction for next week's big Premier League match.