This Week: A Solo Run

This Week: A Solo Run

Hello my name is Jack and welcome to This Week, the weekly round-up of Premier League action on Premier Skills English where the focus is English vocabulary from the stories.

This is the first This Week podcast since Rich left so I'm recording solo today. If you have any messages you would like to send Rich please leave them in the comments section of This podcast and I'll be sure to pass them on. Rich worked hard on this podcast for the last 7 years; I'm sure he would love to hear from you.

If you are listening to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify you can also visit the Premier Skills English website at britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish where you'll be able to download the podcast.

On the Premier Skills English website, you can read the transcript and join the Premier skills English community by completing a language task in the comment section. This will really help you remember new words and phrases I’m going to talk about from the stories from the Premier League.

The words and phrases I’m looking at this week are: to cruise, to seal the deal, to bring out the best in someone, to batter, a belter and revitalised. Listen out for these phrases in the headlines and stories.

Chillwell seals the deal for Chelsea

An early Chalobah goal for Chelsea left them cruising towards an easy win. However, after two disallowed goals, the home team were looking worried. With half an hour to go at Stamford Bridge, Southampton won a penalty and James Ward-Prowse made the scores level. A late tackle got the Saints goal scorer sent off and left the visitors with 10 men for the final 15 minutes of the match. Ross Barkley came on in the 83rd minute and played a beautiful long cross that led to a Timo Werner goal. Ben Chillwell sealed the deal for the Blues in the 89th minute.

Final score: Chelsea 3 - Southampton 1.

When the league leaders take on a team in 17th place, you might expect an easy win. And that’s what you might have expected when Southampton challenged Chelsea on Saturday. In the first half, after an early goal, Chelsea were in charge and didn’t need to try too hard. They were going to win the match without much effort. That’s what the first word I want to look at means. To cruise, normally means to travel on a cruise ship. These are big floating hotels that sail around the world offering luxury holidays. They travel slowly and the passengers are very comfortable. When we use the verb to cruise in other senses, it means to progress comfortably, at a steady speed, without needing to make a lot of effort. Chelsea were cruising towards an easy win.

The next phrase I want to look at from the headline is to seal the deal. This is a complex phrase. A deal is an arrangement. It’s an agreement between two people, usually to buy or sell something. When you make a deal, there might be some reluctance or hesitation on one side. Perhaps you are selling a car and the person who is buying your car has not offered enough money so you are not happy with the deal. If they raise their offer to a level that you are happy with, that raise will seal the deal. It makes a deal safe so nobody can change it. However, this phrase is more commonly used to talk about other arrangements, not necessarily deals. So if you go for a job interview, you might need technical skills, but when the recruiter hears about your English skills, that might seal the deal; that might settle the arrangement so you get the job. In football, sealing the deal usually means the same as making the final result safe. So when Chillwell scored in the 89th minute, there was no way that Southampton could come back and the deal, in this case the Chelsea win, was sealed.

Let’s move on to the next story.

Liverpool and Manchester City bring out the best

Liverpool played poorly in the first half and City battered the home side’s defences, but failed to take advantage of the scoring opportunities they created. In the second half, both teams came out strong and played a magnificent game with Salah scoring a spectacular world-class goal after a dramatic solo run. Before the match, Klopp and Guardiola both expressed their admiration and respect for each other and brought out the best in each other at Anfield.

The match ended with the teams sharing the points: Liverpool 2 - Manchester City 2.

In the first half of the match between Liverpool and Manchester City, Liverpool didn’t show up. They seemed afraid of the Manchester side and got battered, somehow managing to escape without conceding any goals. To batter means to hit something again and again. You often hear the word batter being used to talk about waves crashing against rocks. The rocks were battered by the waves in the storm. If a team batters their opponents, it means they attack them again and again. You can imagine a goalkeeper and defenders getting literally battered by the ball as it’s driven towards the goal by a relentless attacking side.

However, the second half of the match between Liverpool and Manchester City was a wonder to watch. Both teams play with such confidence and quality, they rarely put a foot wrong. It was almost like watching a dance. Sometimes, when the top teams play each other, they cancel each other out. They are so good defensively that they don’t give each other the chance to attack and the matches are not as exciting. However, in the second half at Anfield, both teams played with confidence and courage. Jurgen Klopp must have found the right words in the changing rooms at half time. The two managers, Klopp and Guardiola have spoken about each other in the newspapers and online saying that they bring out the best in each other. This is great for football to have such a positive rivalry and it’s also a lovely expression. It means to help someone improve, to become the best version of themselves or to achieve their best results. We can say that people bring out the best in other people. For example, since they met, Harry has really improved at work. His new manager has really brought out the best in him. Or events can bring out the best in people, for example a competition can inspire people to try harder than they ever have before. I suspect more records are broken at the Olympics than in other competitions because the scale of the Olympics can bring out the best in the athletes.

Time to move on to the final story.

Subs save the day at Palace

After 54 minutes, Crystal Palace were 2-0 down to Leicester and heading for their first defeat at home this season. Viera brought on the 19-year-old Michael Olise who delighted the fans minutes later by scoring with a belter following a lucky rebound. A revitalised Palace kept the pressure on the Foxes, but it was another substitute that saved the day. Jefferey Schlupp came on after 71 minutes and scored with a header, only his second touch of the game.

The match ended Crystal Palace 2 - Leicester City 2.

This was another exciting match where the judgment and actions of the manager dramatically changed the outcome. This time it was the hosts that were in trouble when Patrick Viera made a change and brought on Michael Olise who scored with a belter. To belt something means to hit something very hard. It can also mean to deliver something with a lot of power. I think outside of sport, it’s often used to describe singers with very powerful voices who might belt out a song. A belter then, means a very powerful strike, it’s almost always used to describe a successful strike as well.

Before the goal, Crystal Palace were looking a bit ... well, defeated. They were 2-0 down and it was raining. I’m not sure if the players are affected by the rain - I suspect it doesn’t bother them. Anyhow, after Olise scored, the team were revitalised. This means they suddenly had more energy and were more active, more determined. Vitality is an advanced noun that means a person’s energy and strength. The adjective vital normally means essential but it also means energetic and full of life. So to revitalise a team means to bring back levels of vitality to a tired or depressed team.

OK, so the vocabulary I looked at today was: to cruise, to seal the deal, to bring out the best in someone, to batter, a belter and revitalised. Listen to the headlines again to hear this language in context.

Chillwell seals the deal for Chelsea

An early Chalobah goal for Chelsea left them cruising towards an easy win. However, after two disallowed goals, the home team were looking worried. With half an hour to go at Stamford Bridge, Southampton won a penalty and James Ward-Prowse made the scores level. A late tackle got the Saints goal scorer sent off and left the visitors with 10 men for the final 15 minutes of the match. Ross Barkley came on in the 83rd minute and played a beautiful long cross that led to a Timo Werner goal. Ben Chillwell sealed the deal for the Blues in the 89th minute.

Final score: Chelsea 3 - Southampton 1.

Liverpool and Manchester City bring out the best

Liverpool played poorly in the first half and City battered the home side’s defences, but failed to take advantage of the scoring opportunities they created. In the second half, both teams came out strong and played a magnificent game with Salah scoring a spectacular world-class goal after a dramatic solo run. Before the match, Klopp and Guardiola both expressed their admiration and respect for each other and brought out the best in each other at Anfield.

The match ended with the teams sharing the points: Liverpool 2 - Manchester City 2.

Subs save the day at Palace

After 54 minutes, Crystal Palace were 2-0 down to Leicester and heading for their first defeat at home this season. Viera brought on the 19-year-old Michael Olise who delighted the fans minutes later by scoring with a belter following a lucky rebound. A revitalised Palace kept the pressure on the Foxes, but it was another substitute that saved the day. Jefferey Schlupp came on after 71 minutes and scored with a header, only his second touch of the game.

The match ended Crystal Palace 2 - Leicester City 2.

Your Task

Right, now I’m going to give you a chance to think about the language again.

I’m going to give you six sentences with gaps in them and you have to complete the gaps with the words and phrases I’ve spoken about in this podcast.

Number 1. When the new manager joined the club, he really ____ ___ ___ ____ __ the team, helping them win the league.

Number 2: I wasn’t sure at first, but when the salesman offered to throw in an extended warranty, that ______ ___ ____

Number 3: Greater Manchester was ________ by torrential rain yesterday

Number 4: Did you see that goal? It was a real ______.

Number 5: My team need a new player up front to ________ their attack.

Number 6: The home side were 2 goals ahead with 20 minutes left to play. At this point they were just _______ to victory.

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

Player of the week

It’s time for the Premier Skills English player of the week. Now, I will admit that I have not watched all 10 matches this weekend so I’m going to pick the player of the week from the matches I have spoken about. If you think another player is more deserving, then please let us know in the comments section.

There were some brilliant performances in Midfield at Stamford bridge. Both Ruben Loftus-Cheek who played the first 83 minutes and Ross Barkley who replaced him were brilliant and have had loads of praise from pundits and in the press. Young Michael Olise’s role in revitalising Palace was also worthy of consideration. But the player whose efforts have won our Player of the Week award is Liverpool’s incredible Mohamed Salah. If you have not seen his goal yet, check out the replays online. It will certainly be a goal of the season contender.

Football Phrase

OK - our football phrase. So regular listeners will know that every week, we challenge you to work out a mystery football phrase. For the last few weeks, we have been publishing the Learn English with the British Council and Premier League podcast in three parts and this means that we are out of sync. I have two more episodes of the Learning Vocabulary: Changing Jobs podcast with Rich and Rowan to publish so if you are a regular listener, You’re going to hear last week’s football phrase twice more before I can reveal the answers and I will repeat this mystery football phrase in the podcast on Friday.

This week’s football phrase is playing ******* *** *****. This is a style of attacking play that involves short passes to teammates who manage to find space behind the opposition midfielders and in front of the opposition defenders to probe the defence for weaknesses and spaces to attack. When a team plays in a 442 formation, you can talk about the 2 defenders as the defensive **** and the 4 in the middle are the midfield ****. Palace attacked Leicester by playing ******* *** *****, with short five-yard passes to try to find a way through to goal.

If you know the answer to the football phrase, leave a comment on the podcast page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website. If you have a football phrase that you would like us to use in the podcast, just get in touch and let us know.

Before I finish I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast and the vocabulary useful and I hope all of you stay fit and healthy.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.