Week 7: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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Good for the top teams in the Premier League and the Bundesliga as Chelsea and Mainz keep on winning – five out of five, but bad for Roma and their coach, Ranieri, as they plummet down the table in Serie A. Meanwhile, a return to football for a player convicted of assaulting a woman is ugly news this week.

Good

Great for Mainz in the German Bundesliga as they make it five wins out of five and top the league with 12 goals scored. Most pundits put Mainz’s success down to their young manager, Thomas Tuchel, who kept them in the Bundesliga last year despite no 1st team coaching experience before he was promoted. The strong start of his team has meant that there are already rumours that Tuchel will be leaving next summer to a bigger club. Rumours that he rejects. Less surprising, but impressive nonetheless has been Chelsea’s start to the season – again five wins out of five, but with an incredible average of four goals a game. Can the two teams keep up their perfect starts this weekend as they both face tough opposition?

Bad

It has been a very bad start to the season in Italy for last year’s Serie A runners-up Roma who lost again – this time to Brescia – to remain third from bottom and already 8 points behind the leaders Inter. Manager Claudio Ranieri is under big pressure and looks like he’s a dead man walking, particularly as he seems to be at loggerheads with captain and local legend Francesco Totti. Pretty bad for Roma.

Ugly

After being sent to jail for groping and assaulting a woman – he punched her in the face and broke her nose – the former Wigan player, Marlon King, has been hired to play for Coventry City. His conviction wasn’t a one off either: he has been convicted of driving offenses, fraud, and using illegal credit cards. So, despite this long history of ant-social behaviour he is rewarded by being given a lucrative job as a professional footballer again. Surely, not the kind of role-model the FA wants youngsters to look-up to. Ugly.

Vocabulary

pundit: journalist, expert, someone who comments on a subject

be promoted: be given a better job, move up a level

tough opposition: a difficult to beat team, a strong side

runners-up: The team that finishes second in the league

a dead man walking: The manager appears to be doomed; he looks like he will be fired

to be at loggerheads: To be in disagreement with

a one off: something that only happened once, a rare event, not usual

look up to: respect, admire

Category: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly