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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates.

Matchweek 14 - What a blunder!

Matchweek 14 - What a blunder!

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 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.
If the listening is a bit difficult, try listening and reading 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 last weekend 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: Arsenal see off Spurs in derby day cracker.

Jack: Arsenal won the North London Derby in a fantastic match at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal went ahead when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a penalty but were behind at half-time when Spurs scored two goals in two minutes through Eric Dier and Harry Kane. Arsenal came back strongly in the second half. Aubameyang scored a magnificent equaliser and Alexandre Lacazette put Arsenal ahead before Lucas Torreira wrapped up the win a few minutes later. Final score Arsenal 4-2 Tottenham.

Rich: Injury-time blunder gifts victory to Liverpool.

Jack: An unfortunate error from Everton’s England goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, gave Liverpool all three points in Sunday’s Merseyside Derby. It looked like Liverpool would have to settle for a goalless draw before the 96th-minute calamity. The ball was going over the bar when Pickford pushed the ball on to the bar, the ball bounced on top of the bar a second time and fell straight to Divock Origi to score one of the most bizarre goals you will see this season.

Rich: City work hard to stay in front.

Jack: Manchester City remain two points clear at the top of the Premier League after a 3-1 win against Bournemouth. Bernardo Silva gave City the lead but Callum Wilson deservedly equalised for Bournemouth to make it 1-1 at the break. But, City played better in the second half and goals from Raheem Sterling and Ilkay GIndogan gave the leaders victory.

Rich: What about those derby matches?

Jack; Yeah, Arsenal were brilliant. It’s the best I’ve seen them in ages.

Rich: Liverpool got a bit lucky but it doesn’t matter how you win in derby matches!

Vocabulary alert!

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

Jack: This week’s words are all connected to mistakes or things that happen on the pitch that are a bit strange. The words are: bizarre, blunder, calamity, clanger, howler and gaffe.

Rich: Let’s start with the word bizarre. Bizarre means strange or unusual. Jack described the Liverpool goal as one of the most bizarre goals you will see this season.

Jack: Errors and mistakes are part of football and very often goals are scored because of mistakes rather than great skills. This is what happened in the Merseyside Derby. There are any words to describe errors and mistakes in football.

Jack: We used the word blunder to describe the mistake by Everton’s goalkeeper. Unfortunately, these words are usually used to describe goalkeeping errors as their mistakes are often more noticeable. 

Rich: The words clanger, howler and gaffe can be used in exactly the same way. To describe a big individual error on the pitch. 

Jack: Although, gaffe is often used to describe an embarrassing error in a social situation, when you say the wrong thing for example.

Rich: The final word is ‘calamity’. This, as well as describing the error, usually talks about the people the error effects. You can say it’s a calamity for the goalkeeper or a calamity for the fans.

Jack: It can be quite funny to google something like 10 football blunders and you’ll see howlers that are much, much worse than we saw last weekend.

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: Let’s start with Player of the Week. Alisson played well in goal for Liverpool, some great saves, Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling were good for City again, Marcus Rashford got two assists for Manchester Utd. Lots to choose from …

Rich: But our Player of the Week is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He got two goals in the North London Derby and is the first player to score ten this season.

Jack: Now, Team of the Week. Good wins for City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Palace, Brighton, Leicester, and West Ham but our Team of the Week is Arsenal. That’s the first time Arsenal have come from behind to win the North London Derby in over 10 years.

Rich: Finally, Goal of the Week. Shane Duffy scored a great header for Brighton, Javier Hernandez rediscovered his finishing skills for West Ham and I think Andros Townsend's goal for Palace should win the award …

Jack: But, we’re going to give it to .. yes you guessed it, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang for his wonderful first time curling finish against Spurs.

Rich: I guess Jack is happy about Arsenal winning the North London Derby.

Matchweek Prediction 

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

Rich: Lots of you made predictions last time but unsurprisingly no one chose a 4-2 Arsenal win in the North London Derby. 

Jack: You have to be very fast with this week’s prediction because Matchweek 15 is being played in midweek, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Rich: The big match is Manchester Utd against Arsenal. Manchester Utd have been disappointing recently and only managed a 2-2 draw against Southampton last weekend. Arsenal will be playing with a lot of confidence after their win against Spurs. However, this is when Jose Mourinho teams are usually at their best so I’m going to go with a 1-0 win to Manchester United.

Jack: No chance. Two-nil to Arsenal.

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 14:

Crystal Palace 2-0 Burnley

Huddersfield 1-2 Brighton

Leicester 2-0 Watford

Manchester City 3-1 Bournemouth

Newcastle 0-3 West Ham

Southampton 2-2 Manchester Utd

Chelsea 2-0 Fulham

Arsenal 4-2 Tottenham

Liverpool 1-0 Everton

Cardiff 2-1 Wolves

Pedro scores for Chelsea in their 2-0 win against local rivals, Fulham.

Vocabulary Alert

Football English

We looked at words connected to errors and mistakes in this episode. Take a look at the words in bold. Do you undertand what they mean?

Injury-time blunder gifts victory to Liverpool.

It looked like Liverpool would have to settle for a goalless draw before the 96th-minute calamity.

One of the most bizarre goals you will see this season.

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.

Jordan Pickford waves to fans after his mistake handed Liverpool a derby day victory.

Matchweek Awards

Do you agree with our choices?

Player of the Week: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored ten goals with his last ten shots for Arsenal!

Team of the Week: Arsenal

Arsenal are unbeaten in 19 matches in all competitions. They haven't lost since August!

Goal of the Week: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)

Aubameyang opens the scoring for Arsenal in their 4-2 win against Spurs.

The Big Match

Manchester Utd v Arsenal

Rich's prediction for Matchweek fifteen is the match between Manchester Utd and Arsenal. Rich has predicted a 1-0 win for United while Jack has gone for an Arsenal win (2-0).

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?

Form

Premier League Prediction: Manchester Utd v Arsenal

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 14 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 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal as Player of the Week. Do you agree? 
  2. Jack and Rich selected Arsenal as their Team of the Week. Do you agree?
  3. Rich picked Aubameyang's second goal for Arsenal as Goal of the Week? Did you see it? Do you agree?
  4. Use this week's vocabulary: What blunders or clangers can you remember seeing on the football pitch? What is the most bizarre thing you have ever seen in a match? 

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

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

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Comments

hsn's picture
hsn
13/12/2020
TR
5560
points

The blunder on the pitch I remember which occured many times. By the opponent team’s shot the ball comes along the goal and defender leaves it to the keeper even he has chance to stop it or to pull it up easily. This unexpected gift confuses keeper and it becames a goal.

The most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in the matches is goalkeeper makes a shot to start the game but he accidentally gives ball to the opponent team's striker and the result is an easy goal. Piece of cake! It’s also calamity of keeper.


hsn's picture
hsn
13/12/2020 16:22
Turkey
Tottenham Hotspur
5560

The blunder on the pitch I remember which occured many times. By the opponent team’s shot the ball comes along the goal and defender leaves it to the keeper even he has chance to stop it or to pull it up easily. This unexpected gift confuses keeper and it becames a goal.

The most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in the matches is goalkeeper makes a shot to start the game but he accidentally gives ball to the opponent team's striker and the result is an easy goal. Piece of cake! It’s also calamity of keeper.

thaitn's picture
thaitn
05/12/2018
VN
1122
points

Correct me, please!
In my opinion, David De Gea is one of the world's greatest goalkeeper with his amazing reflex. But I don't understand why his performance for Spain in world cup 2018 was so bad, especially his blunder against Cristiano Ronaldo's goal. This week, he has another howler in the match against Arsenal, and itwill be a calamity for him and his manager if Manchester United can't come from behind to win this match. This is in the second half of the match, so I don't know the final result.
I think the most bizarre thing I have ever seen is when referee send off wrong player. I saw this in an Asernal's match, the referee sent off Gibbs instead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
I agree with almost your choices this week. But the impressive goal for me is the Leroy Sane's goal in the match between Manchester City and Watford. Not because of the scorer, but because of the assist. that's a briliant assist from Mahrez, he made 2 consecutive passes in same way, and both of them are really dangerous ( I don't really know what adjective appropriate to use here)


thaitn's picture
thaitn
05/12/2018 21:24
Vietnam
Manchester City
1122

Correct me, please!
In my opinion, David De Gea is one of the world's greatest goalkeeper with his amazing reflex. But I don't understand why his performance for Spain in world cup 2018 was so bad, especially his blunder against Cristiano Ronaldo's goal. This week, he has another howler in the match against Arsenal, and itwill be a calamity for him and his manager if Manchester United can't come from behind to win this match. This is in the second half of the match, so I don't know the final result.
I think the most bizarre thing I have ever seen is when referee send off wrong player. I saw this in an Asernal's match, the referee sent off Gibbs instead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
I agree with almost your choices this week. But the impressive goal for me is the Leroy Sane's goal in the match between Manchester City and Watford. Not because of the scorer, but because of the assist. that's a briliant assist from Mahrez, he made 2 consecutive passes in same way, and both of them are really dangerous ( I don't really know what adjective appropriate to use here)

Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
04/12/2018
BR
615
points

I agree with almost all your choices this week. Unfortunately Arsenal was superb last Sunday and Aubameyang brilliant. But my choice would be the decisive goal of Junior Hoilett for Cardiff as Goal of the Week.

The most bizarre thing I've ever seen in football was an allowed goal scored by a ballboy! It happened in 2006 in a Brazilian minor league.


Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
04/12/2018 15:10
Brazil
Tottenham Hotspur
615

I agree with almost all your choices this week. Unfortunately Arsenal was superb last Sunday and Aubameyang brilliant. But my choice would be the decisive goal of Junior Hoilett for Cardiff as Goal of the Week.

The most bizarre thing I've ever seen in football was an allowed goal scored by a ballboy! It happened in 2006 in a Brazilian minor league.

Rich's picture
Rich
04/12/2018
ES
594
points

Yes, it was a brilliant goal! I actually forgot about it because the match was played on Friday! I need to get used to Friday night football!

Rich - The Premier Skills English Team


Rich's picture
Rich
04/12/2018 18:51
Spain
Liverpool
594

Yes, it was a brilliant goal! I actually forgot about it because the match was played on Friday! I need to get used to Friday night football!

Rich - The Premier Skills English Team

Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
04/12/2018
DZ
325
points

Team of the week, match of the week and goal of the week all these awards were for Arsenal, I totally agree with your choices,.

I find it really bizarre for Arsenal to play this seaso by many players  who were plying in Bundesliga and Exactly Borussia Dortmund.


Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
04/12/2018 14:12
Algeria
Liverpool
325

Team of the week, match of the week and goal of the week all these awards were for Arsenal, I totally agree with your choices,.

I find it really bizarre for Arsenal to play this seaso by many players  who were plying in Bundesliga and Exactly Borussia Dortmund.

elghoul's picture
elghoul
04/12/2018
DZ
3988
points

I was happy to watch Emirates Stadium show onlive this week so I am near to completely agree with the three awards choices our presentators made. In fact the French commentator on RMC 1 made his spot when saying that Lucas Torreira was the best player. This young player scored his first goal on PL before pulling off his shirt. He was absolutely brilliant in winning his individual fights for the ball and when passing it to his partners.

I have seen lots of blunders on football pitches. The last I've seen was made by a young goalkeeper for his first match with my favorite club RCKouba in cup match against Ouled Moussa. We were beating them 3 to 2 when he misses a long shot to give the ball to the opponent striker who got the equalizer. It is a pity but we succeeded in qualification on penalty kicks.


elghoul's picture
elghoul
04/12/2018 12:26
Algeria
Manchester City
3988

I was happy to watch Emirates Stadium show onlive this week so I am near to completely agree with the three awards choices our presentators made. In fact the French commentator on RMC 1 made his spot when saying that Lucas Torreira was the best player. This young player scored his first goal on PL before pulling off his shirt. He was absolutely brilliant in winning his individual fights for the ball and when passing it to his partners.

I have seen lots of blunders on football pitches. The last I've seen was made by a young goalkeeper for his first match with my favorite club RCKouba in cup match against Ouled Moussa. We were beating them 3 to 2 when he misses a long shot to give the ball to the opponent striker who got the equalizer. It is a pity but we succeeded in qualification on penalty kicks.

Leaderboard

Top Scorers
RankNameScore
1Alex_from_Ukraine6578
2mobeckham6539
3hsn5560
4wsanta5086
5kwesimanifest4779
6Liubomyr4417
7elghoul3988
8assemjuve3705
9aragorn19863557
10Gergő Nagy3396
Country ranking
RankNameScore
1Colombia74679
2Ukraine33892
3Spain29525
4Serbia27426
5Brazil23505
6Albania20578
7Vietnam20460
8Turkey20111
9Macedonia19074
10Bosnia and Herzegovina16333
Club ranking
RankNameScore
1Manchester United146938
2Liverpool111456
3Chelsea90265
4Arsenal86299
5Manchester City58918
6Tottenham Hotspur19506
7Newcastle United10626
8West Ham United7701
9AFC Bournemouth4915
10Crystal Palace4568

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.