This Week: Champions!

Introduction

Laura: Hello my name’s Laura and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English.

Rich: Hi there. I’m Rich. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Jack: And I’m Jack and we hope you are all staying well whether you are staying home or still going to work.

Laura: The Premier League is back and we’re back with more football English for you to learn.

Rich: We take a look at three headlines about the Premier League action from the past seven days and you won’t be surprised that this week we’re focusing on Liverpool becoming Premier League champions for the first time.

Jack: Our main reason for choosing these headlines however is so we can focus on some useful bits of vocabulary. 

Laura: And we want you to use and practise these words and phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: And a little later we’ll also have a Premier League prediction for you. We want you to make your predictions, too.

Jack: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Laura: You can find all our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Rich: Don’t forget that we also have our weekly Premier Skills English podcast that is released every Friday. Every week we help you with some different vocabulary or an aspect of grammar.

Jack: Our latest podcast is called Learning Vocabulary: Giving bad news.

Rich: In the roleplay, I go to an audition for a part in a film about football. I really want to be a Hollywood actor you see.

Jack: But Rich isn’t quite as good at acting as he thinks he is.

Laura: We look at lots of phrases you can use when you need to give someone bad news. You can find the lesson on the homepage on the Premier Skills English website. 

Rich: You’re now going to hear our three headlines. After each headline, we’ll have a little discussion and look at some vocabulary. 

Jack: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: an unassailable lead, to put something on ice, top division, at the top of the pile, a guard of honour and congratulations.

Laura: After the headlines, we want you to make a Premier League prediction and we have a language challenge for you to have a go at.

Headline 1

Rich: Liverpool are Premier League champions.

Jack: Liverpool became Premier League champions for the first time when Manchester City’s defeat at Chelsea left the Reds with an unassailable lead at the top of the Premier League table. Chelsea took a first-half lead to cheer all Liverpool fans but it looked like celebrations would have to be put on ice when Kevin De Bruyne scored a magnificent free-kick. However, Willian scored from the spot to give Chelsea all three points and the party could start at Anfield.

Laura: What was it like supporting Chelsea, Rich?

Rich: It was brilliant. I couldn’t believe some of City’s defending and I didn’t think VAR would see that handball by Fernandinho but it did and it gave us the title.

Jack: So, with seven games to go Liverpool have an unassailable lead at the top of the table. This is our first phrase this week - an unassailable lead.

Laura: If something is unassailable it can’t be challenged or beaten. 

Rich: Liverpool have an unassailable lead - even if Liverpool lose all seven of their final matches and Manchester City win all of theirs Liverpool will still win the league. City can’t get enough points to stop them. Liverpool have an unassailable lead.

Jack: When Kevin De Bruyne scored for City I said that Liverpool’s celebrations might have to be put on ice. I like this idiom to put something on ice.

Laura: To put something on ice is basically an informal way of saying that something has to be done later. 

Rich: This idiom comes from food. If you want to eat something like fish later, you can put it on ice to keep it fresh.

Jack: We’ve had to put our holiday plans on ice at the moment. We can’t go now because of Covid, but we still want to go. 

Rich: Jack said Liverpool fans might have to put their celebrations on ice when De Bruyne scored. In the end, the celebrations were back on only a few minutes later. Let’s move on to our next headline.

Headline 2

Laura: Thirty years of hurt at an end for Liverpool.

Rich: Liverpool have won their first-ever Premier League title and their first top division title for thirty years. The last time the Reds were at the top of the pile of the English game was back in 1990 when John Barnes was Liverpool’s top scorer, Germans were celebrating the reunification of East and West Germany and the first-ever page was published on the world wide web.

Laura: It was a long, long time ago. Can you remember it?

Rich: I can just about. I was only twelve but John Barnes was my favourite player. I was actually a bit of a glory-hunter because I’m not from Liverpool and probably originally supported them because my home town club were not doing well and Liverpool were the best.

Jack: A glory-hunter; that’s a nice football phrase. It is used to describe someone who supports the best team because they have the best chance of winning things. It’s usually used negatively.

Rich: Give me a break! I was only twelve but if I was a glory-hunter I’ve had to wait a long time for the glory. Thirty years!

Laura: Let’s look at a couple of phrases. Jack said it’s been thirty years since Liverpool won a top division title. The top division in England is the Premier League.

Jack: Professional football in England is separated into four different national divisions. You can get promoted and relegated between divisions.

Rich: Jack said that Liverpool are at the top of the pile. This is an idiom which we use to mean to be ahead of everyone else and in the best position.

Laura: A pile is a number of things that are placed on top of each other. You might have a pile of clothes in your bedroom or a pile of dishes in the kitchen. 

Jack: The Premier League table can be described as a pile of football clubs and Liverpool are top of the pile. Let’s move on to our final headline.

Headline 3

Jack: Congratulations from far and wide. 

Laura: Liverpool have rightly earned the plaudits on the pitch this season and they have been receiving congratulations from unexpected places since winning the Premier League title. Alex Ferguson sent his congratulations to the Reds and Premier League rivals were quick to follow suit with Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester City amongst those to tweet their congratulations. As Liverpool’s next opponents, City will also provide the new Champions with a guard of honour when the clubs meet on Wednesday.

Rich: It’s nice to receive all of these plaudits and I think Liverpool definitely deserve it this season.

Laura: Plaudits are expressions of praise and approval.

Jack: It’s funny how the fixtures have worked out, isn’t it? Liverpool’s next opponents are their closest rivals and last year’s champions - Manchester City.

Laura: Yes, they will give Liverpool a guard of honour. This is when the opponents line up to congratulate their opponents on winning the title as they enter the pitch. City players will form two lines and the Liverpool players will walk through the middle to receive congratulations.

Rich: And this is the final phrase we want to look at this week - congratulations.

Jack: We say congratulations to people when we want to praise someone on something they have achieved. 

Rich: We can give our congratulations and we can congratulate someone but we normally just say congratulations.

Laura: I’d like to congratulate Liverpool on winning the Premier League.

Jack: I’d like to give my congratulations to Liverpool on their success this season.

Rich: Congratulations!

Jack: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at are: an unassailable lead, to put something on ice, top division, at the top of the pile, a guard of honour and congratulations.

Laura: Have a listen to the headlines again and see if you understand the vocabulary we’ve looked at. 

Prediction

Rich: It’s time for our Premier League prediction. 

Jack: You predicted a win for Chelsea last week, Laura and Chelsea beat Manchester City.

Rich: I was very happy with that. I think if you get your prediction right you should keep going until you get one wrong. Like a little competition between the three of us.

Laura: So, I’m winning at the moment because I’m on a winning streak of one!

Jack: That’s right.

Laura: All right then. This week I’ll take a look at the match between Wolves and Arsenal. I really like the look of Wolves at the moment and think they have a good chance of getting into the Champions League next season. Arsenal have won their last two away games but I’m still not convinced. They don’t look that good in defence to me. I’m going for a home win. Final score: Wolves 2-0 Arsenal.

Rich: That match is on Saturday but don’t forget there are matches most days this week.

Language Challenge

Jack: To finish up the show we’ve got a quick language challenge connected to this week’s vocabulary.

Laura: We used the phrase to put something on ice earlier in the podcast and we’ve thought of three other phrases which use the word ice.

Rich: What do you think the missing word is in each sentence?

Jack: He must have ice in his _______ to score a penalty under this much pressure.

Laura: Another dangerous tackle by Smith. She’s walking on _____ ice now.

Rich: Liverpool’s first Premier League win is just the tip of the _____. I can see them dominating for years.

Jack: We want you to write the correct answers on the Premier Skills English website where we have some more questions and activities connected to this week’s show for you.

Rich: Or write your answer on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us. Just write the answers in the review section and say hi.

Laura: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this lesson useful and we hope that all of you stay fit and healthy.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.