This Week: Season Finale

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 well.

Laura: The Premier League season is over - and what an exciting season finale it was.

Rich: Lots to talk about - which teams qualified for Europe, which teams are going down, which teams have survived and which teams are coming up.

Jack: And we’ll talk about all that and we have plenty more football English for you to learn, too.

Laura: We’re going to take a look at three headlines from the last round of Premier League action and focus on some useful bits of vocabulary. 

Rich: 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.

Jack: And a little later we’ll also have a Premier League prediction for you. This week we’re going to talk about the FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea.

Laura: 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.

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

Jack: 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.

Laura: Our latest podcast is called Learning Vocabulary: Captain Blade part two.

Rich: This is the second episode in our two-part story about an evil club mascot who wants to take over the world.

Laura: She doesn’t want to take over the world exactly but she does want revenge and has taken Jack and Rich hostage.

Jack: Do you think we’ll escape? In the second episode, we focus on idioms and language connected to fighting and boxing. 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. 

Laura: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: the top table, to miss out on, nail-biting, to hang on, in charge of and the big time.

Jack: 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: Chelsea and United win the race for Champions League football.

Jack: Manchester United will join Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool at the top table of European football next season. United’s 2-0 victory at Leicester means a third-placed finish for Ole Gunnar-Solskjaer’s team and that the Foxes miss out after occupying a top-four slot for much of the season. Chelsea secured their Champions League spot courtesy of a 2-0 home win against Wolves.

Laura: United fans will be very happy to be back in the Champions League after dropping down to the Europa League this season.

Rich: Do you know who I think has been the difference? Bruno Fernandes.

Jack: Yes, he’s been brilliant. Leicester fans will be gutted though. Very disappointing to be up there all season and then miss out at the last minute.

Laura: Good news for Chelsea fans though. Frank Lampard has done a great job in his first season as a Premier League manager.

Rich: Let’s have a look at some language from the headline. We said that Manchester United will be at the top table of European football next season.

Jack: The top table is where the most important people sit. At weddings, in the UK, the families of the bride and groom will often sit at a table at the end of the room where everyone can see them. This is called the top table.

Laura: In the headline, it was used as a phrase in a non-literal way to describe the highest level of European football.

Rich: Many business leaders, politicians and even countries often want a seat at the top table. Again the phrase is being used in a non-literal way to describe people, business or countries who want to be involved in decision-making at the highest levels.

Jack: The next bit of vocabulary we want to look at is to miss out or miss out on something. We said that the Foxes missed out - Leicester missed out on the chance of Champions League football.

Laura: To miss out means to not benefit from something that would be fun or useful. Leicester missed out on Champions League football.

Rich: We often say yes to things because we don’t want to miss out on the chance of doing something exciting and fun. 

Jack: Another phrase I want to have a look at is courtesy of. We said that Chelsea qualified for the Champions League courtesy of a 2-0 win against Wolves.

Laura: Courtesy is usually connected to politeness or polite behaviour. In some cultures, it’s a common courtesy to stand up to allow an older person to sit down on public transport for example.

Rich: But when we say courtesy of it’s actually a phrase that is similar in meaning to as a result of or because of.

Jack: Chelsea qualified for the Champions League courtesy of a 2-0 win against Wolves. Chelsea qualified for the Champions League as a result of a 2-0 win against Wolves. Chelsea qualified for the Champions League because of a 2-0 win against Wolves.

Laura: Let’s take a look at our second headline.

Headline 2

Jack: Villa safe, Cherries and Hornets down.

Laura: Aston Villa survived while Bournemouth and Watford were relegated in a nail-biting finale to the Premier League relegation battle. Watford went down 3-2 at Arsenal but Bournemouth won 3-1 at Everton and needed Villa to lose in order to survive. In a nervy game at West Ham, Villa took an 83rd-minute lead but West Ham equalised one minute later. Villa hung on for the point they needed to hang on to their Premier League status.

Rich: Commiserations to Bournemouth and Watford but congratulations to Aston Villa.

Jack: It was very exciting. One goal for West Ham would have changed everything.

Laura: Let’s have a look at some language. We said that it was a nail-biting finale. 

Rich: We use nail-biting to describe something that is very exciting or makes you feel very anxious. A good film might be nail-biting as you don’t know how it is going to end.

Jack: This is the same with football. It was a nail-biting end to the season - especially for Watford, Bournemouth and Aston Villa fans.

Laura: Our next bit of language is a phrasal verb - to hang on. We said that Villa hung on for a point against West Ham and hung on to their Premier League status.

Rich: To hang on means to continue doing something in a difficult situation.

Jack: It was very difficult for Aston Villa and many people thought they would be relegated, but the team hung on and will be playing Premier League football next season.

Laura: Let’s look at our final headline.

Headline 3

Laura: Leeds and West Brom are up.

Rich: Leeds United are back in the Premier League after 16 years. The Argentinian, Marcelo Bielsa, has led the Whites to the Championship title in his second season in charge of the Yorkshire club. West Brom are back in the big time after two seasons away with Slaven Bilic in charge of the Black Country club.

Jack: It’s been too long. Leeds are a massive club and it will be exciting to see a Marcelo Bielsa team in the Premier League.

Laura: Pep Guardiola has described Bielsa as the best coach in the world and is considered to have had a big influence on modern-day coaching.

Rich: I know that one of our listeners WSanta from Argentina will be very happy. He’s become a Leeds fan just because of Bielsa - his avatar even says ‘in Bielsa we trust!’.

Jack: And congratulations to West Brom too. They keep bouncing back. Boing Boing! That’s a famous West Brom chant if you were wondering why I did that.

Laura: Let’s have a look at some language. We spoke about the managers, Marcelo Bielsa and Slaven Bilic in the headline. The managers are in charge. They are in charge of the club.

Rich: To be in charge means to have control. To be in charge of something means to have control of something. 

Jack: Marcelo Bielsa is in charge of the Leeds team and Slaven Bilic is in charge of West Brom.

Laura: We said that Bielsa led Leeds to the title. A manager is in charge and leads a club so Bielsa led his club to the title and Slaven Bilic led West Brom to promotion.

Rich: Our last phrase this week is the big time. The phrase the big time is connected to fame and success. We said that West Brom are back in the big time. 

Jack: This means they have returned to being famous and successful. The club is now back in one of the biggest leagues in the world.

Laura: We might use to be back in the big time about sportspeople, actors, and singers who have been unsuccessful for a while and are successful again. 

Rich: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at are: the top table, to miss out on, nail-biting, to hang on, in charge of and the big time.

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

Prediction

Laura: It’s time for our Premier League prediction but first of all well done to me for predicting that it would be Manchester United that would pip Leicester to the post and qualify for the Champions League.

Rich: Yes, very good, Laura. You’ve done much better than me over the last few weeks. Right, so the Premier League has finished but this weekend we have the small matter of the FA Cup Final.

Jack: I’m quite nervous about this but I’m hoping Arsenal can beat Chelsea.

Laura: I think it would be a bit cruel to make Jack do a prediction so I think you should do it, Rich. 

Rich: OK, but I don’t think Jack is going to be very happy because I think Chelsea will win the Cup and Arsenal will be left without European football next year. I just don’t think Arsenal are good enough at the moment. They played very well to beat Manchester City but I think that was a bit of a fluke - CIty had so many chances in that game. They also beat Liverpool but we, I mean, Liverpool didn’t have anything to play for. Chelsea are in good form and have just qualified for the Champions League and will have too much for Arsenal. Final score: Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal.

Jack: Thank you, Rich. That’s exactly what I was hoping for. Your predictions have been dreadful recently. I’m now much more confident that Arsenal’s name is going to be on the cup once again.

Laura: So, that’s Rich’s prediction. What’s yours? Do you agree with him? You can make your prediction for the FA Cup Final on the Premier Skills English website.

Language Challenge

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

Jack: Earlier we used the noun phrase the big time when we were talking about West Brom’s promotion to the Premier League. Here are three more noun phrases that use the word time. Can you complete the missing word in each sentence?

Laura: The referee blows his whistle for ___ time. We’ve won!

Rich: I go to my pool for a  little ____ time. I’m so busy the rest of the day.

Jack: They use time ____ in basketball. Do you think they’d be a good thing to use in football?

Laura: 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.

Jack: 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. 

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.