Learn English Through Football

In this football language podcast we look at some of the words and phrases from the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham at the weekend – we use a report from the Guardian newspaper to do this. You can read a transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
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First-Half Goal Blitz – Learning English Through Football Podcast: 2021-22 Season Arsenal vs Tottenham
DF: Hello everyone, this is Damian from the Languagecaster.com team here in an autumnal London. I hope you are all doing well. It’s just me this week as Damon, who of course is based in Tokyo, is busy – I hope that he was not too busy to watch his favourite side Liverpool earn a draw in a six-goal thriller at newly-promoted Brentford at the weekend!
Right, this is going to be painful but on this week’s football-language podcast, I take a look back at the North London derby in which Arsenal beat my team Tottenham 3-1. I am going to look at some of the words and phrases from The Guardian newspaper report including the words ‘rampant‘; ‘goal blitz‘ and ‘claim the derby spoils‘. Did I mention this was going to be painful?
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (Arsenal fan).
Rampant, Blitz & Claim Derby Spoils
This is the headline from the Guardian report after the game and includes lots of really interesting language. As we know, this game between Arsenal and Spurs is a derby – the North London Derby – and when a team wins a derby we can often hear the verb ‘claim‘ used to describe the win; so Arsenal claim the derby win, they won the derby. This example also includes the word ‘spoils‘ which is a word used to describe the things taken (or claimed) in battle by the victorious side. So, as Arsenal won the derby we can see the phrase ‘claim derby spoils‘. Now, they don’t take anything physical but they do take the three points, the bragging rights and of course the glory of winning. The