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
Andre Schurrle celebrates securing victory for Fulham.

Matchweek 3 - First wins and late wins

Matchweek 3 - First wins and late wins

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 3 in the Premier League.

Rich: And not only that but we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Jack: And we want you to use and practise your English and interact with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: You can do this on the Premier Skills English website or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page.

Jack: Let’s start with this week’s headlines!

Headlines

Rich: Liverpool and Chelsea are the early Premier League leaders.

Jack: Liverpool won 1-0 at home against Brighton and Chelsea beat Newcastle 2-1 which means both teams still have a 100% record at the top of the table. Mo Salah got the winner for Liverpool and Chelsea scored a late winner to see off Newcastle.

Rich: Watford keep up their perfect start.

Jack: Watford have won their first three Premier League games for the first-ever time and are also level at the top of the table. Watford beat Crystal Palace 2-1. Watford held on to win despite Wilfried Zaha’s late goal after scoring through Jose Holebas and another sensational strike from Roberto Pereyra.

Rich: Fulham get off the mark against Burnley.

Jack: Fulham became the first promoted team to win a match this season with a fantastic 4-2 win against Burnley. Two goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic and one each from Jean Serri and Andre Schurrle were enough to secure Fulham’s first win of the season.

Rich: Well done to Fulham this weekend. That was a great way to get off the mark.

Jack: It’s always good to get your first win.

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 we’re looking at this week are all connected to winning.

Rich: The words and phrases are: to win, to beat, to get the winner, a late winner, to hold on to win, to secure a win, to see off and to get off the mark.

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

Rich: Liverpool won 1-0 at home against Brighton and Chelsea beat Newcastle 2-1.

Jack: The words win and beat are very similar, but we usually win something and beat someone or a team. When we use ‘beat’ we need an object but we don’t when we use ‘win’.

Rich: ‘Liverpool won 1-0’ or ‘Liverpool won the match 1-0’ is a complete sentence but you can’t say ‘Liverpool beat 1-0’ you need to say ‘Liverpool beat Brighton 1-0’.

Jack: To add an object when we use win we often add the word ‘against’. We can say, ‘Liverpool won 1-0 against Brighton’. 

Rich: Let’s look at some other phrases in the headlines.

Jack: Chelsea scored a late winner. 

Rich: A winner is a goal that wins the match for a team. The scores were level and then one team scores the winner. It’s also common to say which player scored the winner. Mo Salah got the winner for Liverpool for example.

Jack: Watford held on to win despite Zaha’s late goal.

Rich: To hold on to win means to win despite the other team coming back and playing well at the end of the game. 

Jack: If you are holding on it usually means you are defending a lot.

Rich: Four goals from Fulham were enough to secure Fulham’s first win of the season.

Jack: To secure a win means to make sure that a win happens or to make it certain that you are going to win.

Rich: You often hear that a player secured the win when the player makes it three or four nil with just a few minutes left.

Jack: You might also hear; the player made the game safe with the fourth goal or something like that.

Rich: Chelsea scored a late winner to see off Newcastle.

Jack: To see off is a phrasal verb which means to beat a team or a challenge from someone.  

Rich: And, finally, ‘Fulham got off the mark against Burnley’.

Jack: To get off the mark is to start something or get your first points, wins or goals. Fulham got their first win of the season so that is why we used this idiom here.

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

Jack: The words are: to win, to beat, to get the winner, a late winner, to hold on to win, to secure a win, to see off and to get off the mark.

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: These awards always create a lot of discussion between fans of different teams which is good to see.

Rich: Lots of you agreed with our choices last week but not all of you. AssemJuve from Palestine thought the Goal of the Week award should have gone to Tottenham’s Kieran Trippier.

Jack: And, Zaid from India thought it should have gone to Glenn Murray for his goal for Brighton against Manchester United.

Rich: Good to see everybody saying what you think! Let’s start with this week’s Player of the Week award.

Jack: Eden Hazard was good for Chelsea, James Milner was good for Liverpool but our Player of the Week is … Aleksandar Mitrovic for Fulham.

Rich: He had a great game to get Fulham off the mark in the Premier League and really should have had a hat-trick.

Jack: What about Team of the Week? A difficult choice this week. Wolves held on for a brilliant point against Manchester City, Harry Maguire scored a late winner to help Leicester beat Southampton and Chelsea and Liverpool both won.

Rich: Our Team of the Week are also up at the top of the table challenging. Watford win this week’s award. Could they be a surprise title contender?

Jack: Finally, Goal of the Week. Roberto Pereyra scored another great goal for Watford and Ryan Bertrand scored a stunner for Southampton.

Rich: But our Goal of the Week award goes to Jean Seri for Fulham. The goal helped his team secure a win against Burnley. It was a great long-range strike straight into the top corner. Did you see it?

Jack: Yeah. It was a cracker.

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 for the Manchester United - Tottenham match last week. We’re recording this podcast before that match has been played but, on Tuesday, you can click the link on the Premier Skills English page to see how good your prediction was and where you are in our prediction league.

Jack: What’s your prediction this week, Rich?

Rich: This week I’m going to talk about Watford against Tottenham. Spurs have had a pretty good start to the season but Watford have been the biggest surprise so far. The Hornets have seen off everybody they have played and sit with Chelsea and Liverpool at the top of the Premier League. Most people will be predicting a Tottenham win but I think Watford will go into this one with a lot of confidence and with nothing to lose. Final score: Watford 2-1 Tottenham.

Jack: I think the wheels will come off the Watford bus this weekend. I think it will be a 3-0 win to Spurs.

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!

Results

Matchweek 3:

Wolves 1-1 Manchester City

Arsenal 3-1 West Ham

Bournemouth 2-2 Everton

Huddersfield 0-0 Cardiff

Southampton 1-2 Leicester City

Liverpool 1-0 Brighton

Watford 2-1 Crystal Palace

Fulham 4-2 Burnley

Newcastle Utd 1-2 Chelsea

Manchester Utd L-L Tottenham

Mo Salah got the winner for Liverpool against Brighton.

Vocabulary Alert

Football English

Take a look at the words in bold. Do you undertand what they mean?

Liverpool won 1-0 against Brighton and Chelsea beat Newcastle 2-1.

Mo Salah got the winner for Liverpool.

Chelsea scored a late winner to see off Newcastle.

Watford held on to win.

Fulham got off the mark against Burnley.

Goals from Mitrovic, Serri and Shurrle were enough to secure the win against the Clarets.

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.

Wolves held on for a point against City but should their goal have been allowed?

Matchweek Awards

Do you agree with our choices?

Player of the Week: Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham)

Mitrovic scored twice and could have scored more in Fulham's 4-2 win against Burnley.

Team of the Week: Watford

Watford are joint top after three matches. Who would have predicted that at the start of the season?

Goal of the Week: Jean Michael Seri (Fulham)

Seri got off hte mark for Fulham and Fulham got off the mark in the Premier League. It was a great goal!

The Big Match

Watford v Tottenham Hotspur

Rich's prediction for Matchweek three is Manchester United home match against Tottenham. Rich has predicted a 2-1 win for Watford while Jack has gone for a 3-0 win to Spurs.

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.

Who will be our Premier League Prediction Champion?

Form

Premier League Prediction: Watford v Tottenham

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 3 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 Aleksandar Mitrovic of Fulham as Player of the Week. Do you agree? 
  2. Jack and Rich chose Watford as their Team of the Week. Do you agree?
  3. Rich chose Jean Serri's goal for Fulham as Goal of the Week? Did you see it? Do you agree?
  4. Use this week's vocabulary: Who got the winner for your team this week?

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

Comments

hsn's picture
hsn
14/03/2022
TR
5551
points

Phrases
• In the "play off" matches, competitors struggle very hard to see off opponent team.
• At the beginning of the season, generally dark horse teams get off the mark against popular teams as a surprise.
Note
• I've watched a match scored (4-4) recently. How we could say that to secure a win or making the game safe is possible in this case.


hsn's picture
hsn
14/03/2022 16:30
Turkey
Tottenham Hotspur
5551

Phrases
• In the "play off" matches, competitors struggle very hard to see off opponent team.
• At the beginning of the season, generally dark horse teams get off the mark against popular teams as a surprise.
Note
• I've watched a match scored (4-4) recently. How we could say that to secure a win or making the game safe is possible in this case.

Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
02/09/2018
DZ
325
points

I haven't anything to say this week. In other words, I totally agree with your choices.


Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
02/09/2018 21:31
Algeria
Liverpool
325

I haven't anything to say this week. In other words, I totally agree with your choices.

elghoul's picture
elghoul
01/09/2018
DZ
3988
points

Mitrovic is not very famous until now but with  Serri's help he can repeate great matches like the last one.

Watford is surprisingly at the top of the table. What a dark horse they are, aren't they?


elghoul's picture
elghoul
01/09/2018 10:23
Algeria
Manchester City
3988

Mitrovic is not very famous until now but with  Serri's help he can repeate great matches like the last one.

Watford is surprisingly at the top of the table. What a dark horse they are, aren't they?

deepakdev004
30/08/2018
IN
22
points

Burnley is a team who had one of the meanest defensive records of last season and to score a double against them is definitely an achievement for Mitrovic. I agree with the choice of Rich and Jack for the player of the week.
Coming to the Team of the Week award, my choice is different from that of the commentators. I consider Spurs as the team of the week because they secured a commanding win over United at Old Trafford and made a statement to all the other title contenders.


deepakdev004
30/08/2018 15:09
India
Manchester United
22

Burnley is a team who had one of the meanest defensive records of last season and to score a double against them is definitely an achievement for Mitrovic. I agree with the choice of Rich and Jack for the player of the week.
Coming to the Team of the Week award, my choice is different from that of the commentators. I consider Spurs as the team of the week because they secured a commanding win over United at Old Trafford and made a statement to all the other title contenders.

elghoul's picture
elghoul
01/09/2018
DZ
3988
points

Very comprehensive comment I should say both concerning Burnley and Spurs.


elghoul's picture
elghoul
01/09/2018 10:26
Algeria
Manchester City
3988

Very comprehensive comment I should say both concerning Burnley and Spurs.

milos
30/08/2018
RS
2663
points

I agree with your choice,for Aleksandar Mitrovic as the player of the week.Watford had good start this season,and they deserved to be team of the week.My prediction for last week was disaster.Tottenham beat Man.Utd 3-0.I hope that I will be more precise with this week prediction.


milos
30/08/2018 06:31
Serbia
Manchester United
2663

I agree with your choice,for Aleksandar Mitrovic as the player of the week.Watford had good start this season,and they deserved to be team of the week.My prediction for last week was disaster.Tottenham beat Man.Utd 3-0.I hope that I will be more precise with this week prediction.

RafaelRC's picture
RafaelRC
29/08/2018
BR
663
points

Correct me please.
Mitrovic was brilliant, but after Lucas Moura match at Old Trafford the player of the week deserves a new owner. For me Lucas give a doubt in Pochettino's head. For you, who would you choose? Lucas or Son? For me the Lucas moment is better.

I agree with Rafael Robson Tottenham was the team of the week.

Seri's goal was amazing, but I think Ryan Bertrand goal more beautiful, what a shot!!!

Nobody got the winner to Wolves, but the team held on the draw.
I missed my prediction, I believed in United but Tottenham has deserved to win.


RafaelRC's picture
RafaelRC
29/08/2018 11:43
Brazil
Arsenal
663

Correct me please.
Mitrovic was brilliant, but after Lucas Moura match at Old Trafford the player of the week deserves a new owner. For me Lucas give a doubt in Pochettino's head. For you, who would you choose? Lucas or Son? For me the Lucas moment is better.

I agree with Rafael Robson Tottenham was the team of the week.

Seri's goal was amazing, but I think Ryan Bertrand goal more beautiful, what a shot!!!

Nobody got the winner to Wolves, but the team held on the draw.
I missed my prediction, I believed in United but Tottenham has deserved to win.

Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
30/08/2018
BR
615
points

Hi RafaelRC
For now, I would choose Lucas. I think he has a greater potential to decide the games, although I also like Son, a very useful player.


Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
30/08/2018 04:31
Brazil
Tottenham Hotspur
615

Hi RafaelRC
For now, I would choose Lucas. I think he has a greater potential to decide the games, although I also like Son, a very useful player.

RafaelRC's picture
RafaelRC
30/08/2018
BR
663
points

I agree with you. The season is long, it's necessary have a qualified team


RafaelRC's picture
RafaelRC
30/08/2018 10:57
Brazil
Arsenal
663

I agree with you. The season is long, it's necessary have a qualified team

Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
28/08/2018
BR
615
points

1. I would have chosen Mitrovic as Player of the Week, but after Lucas Moura performance yesterday, my choice is Lucas Moura of Tottenham.
2. Tottenham is the Team of the Week. Pocchetino saw off Mourinho brightly.(Watford is beating their opponents but don't forget Crystal Palace could have drawn the game last minute with Ward).
3. I agree with Rick. Seri's goal was wonderful.
4. This week Lucas Moura got the winner for Spurs.


Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
28/08/2018 14:34
Brazil
Tottenham Hotspur
615

1. I would have chosen Mitrovic as Player of the Week, but after Lucas Moura performance yesterday, my choice is Lucas Moura of Tottenham.
2. Tottenham is the Team of the Week. Pocchetino saw off Mourinho brightly.(Watford is beating their opponents but don't forget Crystal Palace could have drawn the game last minute with Ward).
3. I agree with Rick. Seri's goal was wonderful.
4. This week Lucas Moura got the winner for Spurs.

Rich's picture
Rich
28/08/2018
ES
594
points

I agree with you Rafael. If we had recorded this a day later we would have chosen Spurs and Lucas Moura for the awards. A great result for Tottenham. Did you watch it?

Rich - The Premier Skills English Team


Rich's picture
Rich
28/08/2018 22:28
Spain
Liverpool
594

I agree with you Rafael. If we had recorded this a day later we would have chosen Spurs and Lucas Moura for the awards. A great result for Tottenham. Did you watch it?

Rich - The Premier Skills English Team

Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
30/08/2018
BR
615
points

A great result indeed. Unfortunately, I had classes at that time and I could only watch the second half.


Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
30/08/2018 04:24
Brazil
Tottenham Hotspur
615

A great result indeed. Unfortunately, I had classes at that time and I could only watch the second half.

anhduongspurs
28/08/2018
VN
1084
points

1. I think Lucas Moura is he player of the week. He scored 2 goals o help Spurs to get 3 points from MU.
2.Tottenham
3.I agreed with you


anhduongspurs
28/08/2018 12:04
Vietnam
Wolverhampton Wanderers
1084

1. I think Lucas Moura is he player of the week. He scored 2 goals o help Spurs to get 3 points from MU.
2.Tottenham
3.I agreed with you

Leaderboard

Top Scorers
RankNameScore
1Alex_from_Ukraine6561
2mobeckham6524
3hsn5551
4wsanta5086
5kwesimanifest4779
6Liubomyr4417
7elghoul3988
8assemjuve3705
9aragorn19863557
10Gergő Nagy3396
Country ranking
RankNameScore
1Colombia71666
2Ukraine33799
3Spain29273
4Serbia27426
5Brazil23321
6Albania20578
7Vietnam20405
8Turkey20034
9Macedonia19074
10Bosnia and Herzegovina16333
Club ranking
RankNameScore
1Manchester United143452
2Liverpool111037
3Chelsea89963
4Arsenal86176
5Manchester City58595
6Tottenham Hotspur19327
7Newcastle United10545
8West Ham United7637
9AFC Bournemouth4875
10Crystal Palace4491

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.