The New Season Begins
For football-starved fans of the English Premier League, the long summer of cricket finally ended as the 2009-2010 season kicked off on Saturday.
But even as a brand new season opens, it seems that some of the key figures are up to their old tricks already.
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez wasted no time in giving a tongue-lashing to the referee who denied his team not one, but two penalties during their 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
"The decisions were very poor," said Benitez.
"Everyone could see the first one was a penalty. The second one was handball but we knew it would not be a penalty."
Liverpool's misery was completed with the sending off of assistant manager Sammy Lee after he complained too strongly about the perceived handball.
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp took a very different view of the penalty incidents, describing the first one as "the kind of bread-and-butter stuff that defenders do week in, week out".
The phrase "bread-and-butter stuff" means activities or tasks that you do on such a regular basis that they are very familiar to you or become second nature.
The expression "week in, week out" simply means every week.
One Premiership manager who certainly isn't complaining is Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger whose team has gone straight to the top of the league with a 6-1 thumping of Everton on Saturday.
"Everybody in our team can score goals and everybody likes to go forward so when things go for us like today, anyone can score," said Wenger.
Another manager who will be very much under the spotlight this term is Manchester City’s Mark Hughes who has spent ￡176m (nearly 2,000m Yuan) on new players since the club was bought by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family last year.
"The excitement is tangible," Hughes said, meaning the excitement is so great you can almost touch it.
"Everyone connected with the club is feeling the anticipation of a season we hope is going to be very successful for us."
Manchester City didn’t disappoint on Saturday, beating Blackburn 2-0 with goals from new signing Adebayor and old City favourite Steven Ireland.
"Many people might have been looking to see if we were going to fall flat on our face today and I thought we gave a great response," said Hughes.
"To fall flat on your face" is a metaphorical expression meaning to make a big mistake with everybody watching.
Ironically, Mark Hughes did slip on wet grass as he shook the Blackburn manager’s hand after the game.
City fans will be hoping that is the only tumble their team will face this season.
Vocabulary 词汇
football-starved 渴望看足球的
cricket 板球
up to their old tricks 故伎重演
tongue-lashing 严厉批评
handball 手球
sending off 罚下场
perceived 印象里的
second nature 第二本能
thumping 重击
under the spotlight 备受关注
Abu Dhabi royal family 阿布扎比皇室
new signing 新签约球员
metaphorical expression 比喻的说法
slip 滑倒
tumble 失败