Welcome everyone to the football podcast for learners of English. On this week’s show we’ll be talking about violence in the Premier League, the exciting race at the top of the table there, and some unfortunate teams struggling across Europe. You can read the transcript for the show in our post below (Damian = DF, Damon = DB).

Learn English Through Football Podcast: Mourinho’s United at Chelsea

Subscribe to the show and receive automatic downloads every week

* Subscribe through i-tunes here

* Click for the latest shows here

* Podcast FAQ

Transcript of the show

DB: Welcome to languagecaster.com’s football podcast. Yes, you’ve reached the show for football fans interested in improving their English language skills. My name’s Damon and I’m sitting here in a chilly Tokyo feeling a bit fed up, as our team’s last game of the season was called off, cancelled, yesterday. Also, Damian is off enjoying himself at a birthday party, so I’m all on my own today!

Never mind, at least Liverpool beat Tottenham in the EFL Cup and are through to the quarter finals!

Now, on the show today we will be reviewing a few of the big football stories from the week in our Good, the Bad and the Ugly review section coming up next. Then, we’ll have our regular weekly quiz, followed by some English for football phrases – including the phrase ‘prawn sandwich brigade.’ To finish we will spotlight three games from this weekend’s Premier League fixtures: Tottenham v Leicester, Crystal Palace v Liverpool, and Southampton v Chelsea.

OK, let’s start with our good, the bad and ugly section.

Good

First good. I think it’s good for fans of competitive leagues, where there is an exciting race for the title. Even though it’s a cliche that you shouldn’t pay attention to the table until 10 games, nine games in to the Premier League season and five teams are separated by just one point, with Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool on 20 points, followed by Chelsea and Tottenham on 19. If it stays like this for another nine games, we could be in for a cracking end to the season. The one negative, however, is that these are all teams you would expect at the top; there is no Leicester this year. 

Bad

As for bad, well it’s looking pretty bad at the bottom of the tables for Sunderland in the Premier League in England, Grenada in La Liga, Spain, Hamburg in Germany’s Bundesliga and Crotone in Serie A in Italy. These four clubs have failed to register a win this season, and already look doomed for the drop. It’s a bit of a shock to see Hamburg, a team with a proud history of success domestically and in Europe in such a poor league position, especially as they have never been relegated from the top division.

Ugly

And finally for ugly it’s back to West Ham’s London stadium, where there were ugly scenes again, as fighting broke out between West Ham fans and Chelsea fans inside the ground. In August, West Ham fans were fighting amongst themselves, apparently because of a dispute between fans wanting to stand and those who remained seated. Then,