This Week: Changing Hands

This Week: Changing Hands

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

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

Laura: My name’s Laura. If you want to listen and read at the same time we have a transcript of this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: During Matchweek 8, top place in the Premier League changed hands three times, there was a monster win for Manchester City in the Women’s Super League and Villa win again on their travels.

Jack: We’re going to look at three headlines from this weekend’s action and after each, we’ll look at a couple of useful phrases. 

Laura: 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: 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.

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

Laura: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: to take over, to change hands, to self-isolate, long-awaited, a brace and much-needed.

Rich: Later on we’ll also have a language challenge for you to have a go at so you need to be ready for that.

Headline 1

Jack: Top place up for grabs in Premier League.

Rich: Liverpool started the weekend in first position but Southampton took over top spot after a 2-0 win over Newcastle. Top spot changed hands again when Harry Kane’s 150th Premier League goal gave Spurs all three points against West Brom but it was Leicester City who finished the weekend top of the pile after a 1-0 win against Wolves.

Laura: Liverpool to Southampton to Tottenham to Leicester all on the same weekend. Top position is very much up for grabs.

Jack: I used this phrase ‘up for grabs’ in the headline. Up for grabs is an informal idiom which means to be available for anyone who is interested.

Rich: Top spot in the Premier League seems to be available and it’s up for grabs to any team who is interested and of course wins a couple of matches.

Laura: Another interesting idiom is to change hands. Top spot changed hands three times at the weekend.

Jack: To change hands means to change ownership and is usually used to talk about business changing hands - changing owners.

Rich: But one team need to own first place in the Premier League and this changed hands three times at the weekend.

Laura: There was a lot of useful language in our opening headline this week. What about to take over? Rich said Southampton took over top spot.

Jack: To take over is a phrasal verb and it can mean to take control over something or take responsibility for something.

Rich: Southampton took control over first place in the Premier League.

Laura: Then Tottenham took over and then Leicester City took over.

Jack: And our last phase from this headline is to be at the top of the pile. We said Leicester City finished the weekend at the top of the pile.

Rich: A pile is a number of things that are placed on top of each other. In this phrase, the Premier League table is the pile and Leicester City are at the top of it.

Laura: To be at the top of the pile means to be in the highest position. If you’re at the top of the pile at work you are the boss and have reached the top level in your company.

Jack: Let’s move on to our second headline.

Headline 2

Laura: City hit eight as United go top.

Jack: Manchester City thrashed Bristol City 8-1 in the Women’s Super League with a number of Bristol players self-isolating due to COVID-19. Manchester United took over at the top of for the first-ever time with a 1-0 win against Arsenal and Alex Morgan made her long-awaited debut for Tottenham in a one-all draw against Reading.

Rich: That’s a difficult one at the moment, isn’t it. Teams are often not able to play their first-choice players at the moment because some players may be self-isolating.

Laura: Yes, we’re hearing this term self-isolating quite a lot at the moment.  

Rich: Self-isolation is when you keep yourself away from other people. At the moment it means staying at home and not leaving your house because you have or might have COVID-19.

Jack: We say that during this period a person is self-isolating. 

Laura: Better news is the long-awaited debut of Alex Morgan for Spurs. She came off the bench for her first minutes since giving birth to her first child in May.

Rich: We said her debut was long-awaited. If something is long-awaited it means people have been waiting a long time for something to happen. Football fans had been waiting a long time for Morgan to make her Spurs debut.

Jack: Let’s move on to our third and final headline.

Headline 3

Rich: Villa look good away and big wins for United, Palace and Chelsea.

Laura: Aston Villa maintained their 100% away record with a fabulous 3-0 win at Arsenal. Ollie Watkins scored a brace for Villa in that one. There were big 4-1 wins for Crystal Palace against Leeds and Chelsea against Sheffield United and there was a much-needed win for Ole Gunnar Solskjaers Manchester United as they won 3-1 away at Everton.

Jack: Villa are looking good away from home - not such a good result for Arsenal.

Rich: Ollie Watkins scored a brace. He scored two goals. That’s six in the Premier league for him now.

Laura: A brace is a pair of goals. Ollie Watkins scored twice. He scored a brace or he got a brace.

Jack: Laura said that Manchester United got a much-needed win. When we say something is much-needed we are saying that something was required or needed a lot.

Rich: United had had some poor results recently so the victory against Everton was described as a much-needed win.

Laura: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at are: to take over, to change hands, to self-isolate, long-awaited, a brace and much-needed.

Jack: Don’t forget to look at the website for the transcript if you want to check your understanding of this vocabulary.

Prediction

Rich: It’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction. Last time Jack predicted a win for Manchester City against Liverpool but it finished in a one-all draw.

Laura: We haven’t spoken about this match in the headlines but I think one all was probably a fair result - neither side did enough to win.

Rich: I’d probably agree with that. This week there is an international break so Matchweek 9 begins the weekend after next and Laura is going to do our prediction for that one.

Laura: There are some big games in Matchweek 9. Tottenham against Manchester City is a big match but I’m going to concentrate on Leicester City’s trip to Liverpool. Leicester travel to Liverpool as the Premier League leaders and they’ve already won at Arsenal and Manchester City. The Foxes will look to defend and counter-attack at pace. This will be a difficult match for Liverpool after the international break but I think it’ll finish in a draw. Final score: Liverpool 1-1 Leicester City.

Jack: I think Liverpool will have too much for Leicester but I’ve known to be wrong before.

Rich: We want all of you to make your predictions for this match and all the Matchweek 9 fixtures on the Premier Skills English website.

Language Challenge

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

Rich: Earlier we looked at the phrasal verb to take over. Southampton took over first place, then Tottenham took over and then Leicester took over.

Jack: Here are three more sentences that use phrasal verbs with take. Can you guess the missing word?

Laura: Leicester City are going to take ****** Liverpool at Anfield next week.

Rich: The manager had to take him ****** in the second half due to injury.

Jack: City took United ****** in the second half. United hardly touched the ball.

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

Laura: 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.

Jack: 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.