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Weekly Football Phrase: Close the gap
In this football phrase of the week we look at the expression, ‘close the gap‘ after Manchester City’s win over Arsenal in the Premier League. You can read the transcript for this post 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. You can also find out more about this phrase in our football language forum. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us here.
DF: Hello everyone. This is Damian from the Learn English Through Football team and I hope you are all doing well. I am here in a sunny London after another big weekend of football. Liverpool won the Merseyside derby with a last-minute winner; Real Sociedad won the Copa del Rey after defeating Atletico Madrid on penalties and Manchester City defeated Arsenal in the big top-of-the-table clash in England. And it is this game we are going to look at for a couple of football expressions to explain: close the gap and game in hand.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in Dutch)
DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast, or as we were known before, Languagecaster. And that message was in Dutch.
Close the gap
DF: Right, as we mentioned in our last podcast, it’s the business end of the season and this week’s football expression comes from the big showdown between Manchester City and Arsenal at the weekend in which Manchester City won 2-1 to put them three points behind leaders Arsenal but with a game in hand. This means that the title race has been blown wide open so we don’t know which team will win the title but we now have a two-horse race for that title. So, before this game Arsenal were six points clear at the top but after their defeat they are now only three points clear or three points ahead of second-place City. And this means that Manchester City have reduced or closed the gap.
Game in hand
Now another expression that we heard after this game was ‘game in hand‘. City are three points behind Arsenal with a game in hand. This means that City have played a game fewer than Arsenal; they have six games left while Arsenal have only five. And this also means that if City win their game in hand they will go top on goal difference – . or goals scored. Both teams will have the same number of points but City have a better goal difference or they will have scored more goals.
DF: Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast (in Italian)
Goodbye
DF: OK, so on this week’s football expression we have looked at the phrases, ‘close the gap‘ and ‘game in hand‘ after Manchester City’s win over Arsenal. Can you think of any other words or phrases that are linked to these expressions? And how about in another language that you know?
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster.com (Learn English Through Football Podcast) (from an Arsenal fan)
DF: That’s it for this week’s football expressions: close the gap and ‘game in hand’. We’ll be back with our weekly podcast with more football language at the weekend. Enjoy the football this week and we’ll see you soon. Bye bye!
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