The Champions League and Europa League group stages have kicked off, club football is in full swing in Europe, while in Asia the Asian Champions League reaches the semi-final stage. We look at stories from those competitions on this week’s podcast, bring you some English for football phrases and take a look at some of the big games from the 2017-18 Premier League – including Chelsea versus Arsenal.  For those who wish to practise their English, there is a transcript below to help with reading and listening (Damian = DF, Damon = DB).

Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2017-18 Blues v Gunners

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Transcript of the show

DB: You are listening to Languagecaster’s football-language podcast. Hello everyone. My name is Damon and I’m talking to you from Tokyo as typhoon number 18 makes it’s way up the Japanese island chain – grey and rainy at the moment but not too windy in Tokyo. Damian, how are you and how’s the weather in London?

DF: I’m good Damon. Hope the typhoon doesn’t hit and everyone there is safe. London is a bit grey with some sun around with no typhoons!

Apologies to our listeners for not being on the show over the past two weeks – first I was in Paris and then last week in Ireland. I have been watching lots of football though, I was in Dublin last week to see Ireland unfortunately lose 0-1 to Serbia in their World Cup qualifier and then earlier this week I was back at Wembley to watch Spurs beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in the first of their Champions League group matches. A thrilling encounter beween two top sides.

DB: Sounds good. OK, what’s on the show today?

Line Up

DF: Well Damon, we are going to start with news stories from the football world last week in the good, the bad, and the ugly. And we’ve got stories from the Champions Leagues in both Europe and Asia, then we have a few football phrases to explain, including to bully the opposition. I believe you’ve got a quiz question for us, and then we’ll finish with our weekly predictions.

DB: Yes, and we’ll be looking at three games from the Premier League: Chelsea v Arsenal, Manchester United against Everton, and Watford v Manchester City.

You are listening to languagecaster.com – in Italian

DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and that was in Italian! Now what was good in the world of football last week Damian?

Good

DF: Well, I have already mentioned Tottenham’s victory over Dortmund which was good for many reasons, while it was also a good week for the Asian Champions League as first Urawa Reds in Japan overcame rivals Kawasaki Frontale over two legs in the Asian Champions League quarter-final. Reds were 3-1 down from the first leg but managed to turn the game around at home by winning 4-1 to get through on an