This Week: Ronaldo Returns

This Week: Ronaldo Returns 

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to our weekly round-up 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: If you are listening to this podcast on Apple podcasts or Spotify or watching this podcast on youtube, you can also visit the Premier Skills English website at britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish where you’ll be able to download the podcast. 

Rich: On the podcast page on Premier Skills English, you can read the transcript and join the Premier Skills English community by completing a language task in the comments section. This will really help you remember the new words and phrases we talk about from the stories from the Premier League. 

Jack: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: to struggle, to hit rock bottom, 100% record, the starting line-up, to be set to do something and transfer deadline. Listen out for these phrases in the headlines and stories.

Rich: After we look at the language we’ll have a task for you to do then, we’ll announce our Player of the Week and we have a new football phrase for you to guess.

Jack: OK, let’s hear this week’s three football stories!

Headline 1

Rich: Jesus stars in big win for City.

Jack: Manchester City beat Arsenal 5-0 at the Etihad in a fantastic display of free-flowing football and CIty’s biggest-ever win against the Gunners. In truth, it was too easy for City as Arsenal struggled once Granit Xhaka had been sent off in the first half. City’s season is up and running, but Arsenal have hit rock bottom with no goals and no points from their opening fixtures.

Rich: A great performance by City but things aren’t looking so good for Arsenal.

Jack: No, but there are some mitigating circumstances.

Rich: Mitigating circumstances? That’s a difficult expression - do you want to explain what that means?

Jack: Well, mitigating circumstances are circumstances - circumstances are the conditions or facts that surround a specific situation and mitigating circumstances are factors, reasons or excuses for something happening that meant that it’s not really someone’s fault.

Rich: OK, I get it. Mitigating circumstances are excuses. So what are Arsenal’s excuses? Arsenal’s mitigating circumstances.

Jack: Er … we’ve had lots of injuries and had to play Chelsea and Manchester City. 

Rich: Well it’s certainly been a struggle so far this season. That’s the first word we want to look at this week: struggle.

Jack: Struggle can be a verb or a noun. In the headline, we used it as a verb. We said Arsenal struggled once Granit Xhaka had been sent off.

Rich: And I just used struggle as a noun when I said that it’s been a struggle for Arsenal so far this season.

Jack: As a verb, struggle means to find something very difficult to do or to do something in difficult circumstances.

Rich: Arsenal are struggling at the moment they are finding things difficult to do. They are not playing their best football.

Jack: We often talk about teams struggling at the bottom of the table.

Rich: It’s been a struggle for Arsenal. The noun has the same meaning as the verb. The start of the season has been a challenge - a struggle - a very difficult task that requires a lot of effort.

Jack: Outside of football we can also talk about struggle to describe a fight to achieve something. We often talk about people who struggle to achieve equal rights or we might read about political or power struggles in government. 

Rich: There are two idioms from the headline I’d like to look at now. The first is up and running.

Jack: I said, City’s season is up and running. Up and running is usually used to describe a machine that has recently started working - it is operating.

Rich: We often use it when a machine is broken and someone comes to fix it. The mechanic or electrician might say something like ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get this up and running again in no time’.

Jack: The phrase is often linked to success and operating well. We can say that Manchester City’s season is up and running because they have started the season and they are playing well. 

Rich: The other idiom from the headline is to hit rock bottom. Jack said Arsenal have hit rock bottom with no goals and no points.

Jack: To hit rock bottom means to reach the lowest point or level possible. Arsenal aren’t playing well - we’ve hit rock bottom.

Rich: They are bottom of the Premier League and are playing badly. We can use this phrase outside of football, too.

Jack: Rock-bottom can actually have a positive meaning if we talk about prices. My local electronic store is selling laptops at rock-bottom prices. I’m thinking about buying one.

Rich: But more often it has a negative meaning. We could talk about relationships hitting rock-bottom or confidence hitting rock bottom.

Jack: OK, quite a bit of useful language there. Let’s move on to our second headline.

Headline 2 

Jack: Tottenham are the early Premier League leaders.

Rich: Spurs beat Watford 1-0 to maintain their 100% record and go top of the Premier League table. Son Heung-min got the only goal of the game in the first half. Harry Kane returned to the starting line-up and the team looked defensively strong in an encouraging display from the London club.

Jack: Tottenham top of the table. That’s a big surprise.

Rich: Tottenham top of the table - Arsenal rock-bottom. How are you feeling, Jack?

Jack: Yeah, let’s not focus on that too much. Well done to Spurs though.

Rich: OK, let’s move on to the language. The first phrase I want to look at is 100% record. I said that Spurs beat Watford 1-0 to maintain their 100% record.

Jack: When we talk about a 100% record in football we are talking about a team that have won every game they have played.

Rich: Tottenham have played three matches and won three matches. They have a 100% record. 

Jack: We often use the noun record to talk about pieces of information that are often stored in some way. Police, doctors, dentists, workplaces and banks keep lots of records.

Rich: Yes, some useful collocations here are things like criminal records, medical records, dental records, personnel records and financial records. 

Jack: The second phrase I want to look at from the headline is starting line-up. This phrase is used to describe the eleven players that start the match for a team. 

Rich: It was good to see Harry Kane back in Tottenham’s starting line-up.

Jack: We can also use line up as a phrasal verb. It has a few different meanings but it can also be used in the same way as the noun phrase.

Rich: You might hear a commentator say ‘Here’s how United line up today’ before they announce the eleven players in the starting line-up.

Jack: Let’s move on to our final headline. It’s the big story of the week.

Headline 3

Rich: Ronaldo is on his way back to Old Trafford.

Jack: Manchester United edged to a 1-0 win against Wolves on Sunday thanks to Mason Greenwood’s late winner but all the talk was about Cristiano Ronaldo’s return. The club have announced that Ronaldo is set to sign before this week’s transfer deadline.  

Rich: This is definitely the biggest story of the week and probably the biggest story of the summer: Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United. What do you think?

Jack: It was a big surprise but for Manchester United fans everywhere it’s very, very exciting.

Rich: Fans were singing his name at the match and there were loads of signs and even a few full body cut-outs of Cristiano in the crowd.

Jack: I think this signing could change United’s season and where the title goes. It’s massive.

Rich: It is but he hasn’t quite signed yet. Manchester United have announced it on their website but Ronaldo does need to pass a medical first.

Jack: I’m sure he will but that’s why in the headline we said Ronaldo is set to sign for Manchester United.

Rich: This is the first bit of language from this headline we want to look at: to be set to do something.

Jack: To be set to do something means to be ready to do something or to be prepared for something. Cristiano Ronaldo is set to sign for Manchester United. He’s prepared to sign a contract for Manchester United. He’s ready to do it.

Rich: Let’s think of another example … I was all set to go to France for my holidays but then we had to cancel because of COVID-19.

Jack: All set to go is a common informal phrase when you are ready to leave the house. I’m all set to go. Are you ready?

Rich: I’ll just get my coat. 

Jack: The final phrase we want to look at this week is transfer deadline. Tuesday is transfer deadline day in the Premier League.

Rich: A deadline is a time which something must be done. You often get deadlines at work or deadlines to do assignments or pay bills.

Jack: The transfer deadline is 1100 in the UK and no players can move clubs after this time.

Rich: Transfer deadline day is always quite exciting as there are often lots of players changing clubs.

Jack: OK, we’ve looked at quite a lot of language. Have a listen to the headlines again and maybe look at the transcript on the Premier Skills website at the same time. Can you hear the vocabulary we’ve been talking about?

Headlines - Repeat

Rich: Jesus stars in big win for City.

Jack: Manchester City beat Arsenal 5-0 at the Etihad in a fantastic display of free-flowing football and CIty’s biggest-ever win against the Gunners. In truth, it was too easy for City as Arsenal struggled once Granit Xhaka had been sent off in the first half. City’s season is up and running, but Arsenal have hit rock bottom with no goals and no points from their opening fixtures.

Jack: Tottenham are the early Premier League leaders.

Rich: Spurs beat Watford 1-0 to maintain their 100% record and go top of the Premier League table. Son Heung-min got the only goal of the game in the first half. Harry Kane returned to the starting line-up and the team looked defensively strong in an encouraging display from the London club.

Rich: Ronaldo is on his way back to Old Trafford.

Jack: Manchester United edged to a 1-0 win against Wolves on Sunday thanks to Mason Greenwood’s late winner but all the talk was about Cristiano Ronaldo’s return. The club have announced that Ronaldo is set to sign before this week’s transfer deadline. 

TASK - Language Challenge

Rich: Right, now we’re going to give you a chance to think about the language again. 

Jack: We’re going to give you seven sentences with gaps in them and you have to complete the gaps with the words and phrases we spoke about in this podcast. 

Rich: Tottenham have a __________ so far this season.

Jack: Do you think Cristiano Ronaldo will go straight into United’s _________?

Rich: After three matches, Arsenal are really ________.

Jack: I can’t believe we’re in last place. It can’t get any worse than this. We’ve really hit ___ _____.

Rich: Will your team buy anyone before the ___________?

Jack: He was ________ to sign for City before United came in with an offer.

Rich: My car’s ___________ again after being in the garage for a week.

Jack: Leave your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Player of the week

Jack: Rich - I think it’s time to tell everyone who we’ve chosen as our Player of the Week. 

Rich: It was a difficult choice this week. Chelsea defenders like Antonio Rudiger and Cesar Azpilicueta were fantastic as they held on for a point at Anfield.

Jack: What about Conor Gallagher? He scored twice for Crystal Palace. 

Rich: That’s a really good shout or maybe Michail Antonio who played really well for West Ham in the same game.

Jack: I don’t think many would have complained if we’d chosen any of those players but we’ve decided to go with a Manchester City player after their  5-0 win at the weekend.

Rich: All the City players were in fine form but we think the pick of the bunch was the Brazilian striker, Gabriel Jesus.

Jack: Jesus scored one and set another up and his general all-round play maybe showed that City don’t need to sign another striker before the transfer deadline.

Rich: So Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus is our Player of the Week. Tell us what you think about our choice and who you think should be player of the week on the Premier Skills English website.

Football Phrase 

Rich: OK, it’s time for our football phrase. If you’ve not listened to the podcast before, every week we set our listeners a challenge. We explain a football phrase or word and you have to guess what it is.

Jack: You will hear this football phrase in every podcast we release this week.

Rich: When you know the answer, go to the podcast page on the Premier Skills English website or the review section on Apple Podcasts and write the word or phrase in the comments. If you’re correct we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast.

Jack: So what is this week’s football phrase, Rich?

Rich: This week’s football phrase is ******* ****. This phrase is not exactly a football phrase but it is one that you will see a lot this week if you read about Cristiano Ronaldo and his return to Manchester United. This phrase is used as a greeting to tell someone that you are happy that they have returned. I saw lots of fan-made signs saying ******* **** Cristiano at the match last weekend.

Jack: I think it’s great for the whole Premier League to have Cristiano Ronaldo playing in it again. I can’t wait to see him in action.

Rich: If you have a football phrase that you would like us to use in the podcast, just get in touch and let us know.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for but we will be back later this week on Apple Podcasts and Spotify with the Premier Skills English podcast.

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

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.