This Week: The Youngest Player

Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to the weekly round-up called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English.

In this week, we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

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 comments section. This will really help you remember the new words and phrases from the stories from the Premier League.

The words and phrases I am focusing on this week are: barren, a blinder and a belter, to diminish, the tender age of, a convincing win, to monopolise something, improvisational and tame.

Listen out for these words and phrases in the headlines and stories.

After each story there will be a short language focus and then there will be a task for you to complete and then at the end of the podcast there will be a new football phrase.

Football phrase

But before that, I want to look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last time, here’s one more chance to guess now.

This week, I’m looking for a noun. That means a date and time for a future match. On the Premier League website, there is a page with all the ********. You can filter the list by club to see who your team is playing next and when they will face their biggest rivals.

Congratulations to Wilson2103 from Colombia Isshin and Hayato form Japan, HarryKien from Vietnam, hsn from Turkey, Taran_t from Iran, Hiracky16 from Japan, Imad K from Morocco,  Faruk Arslan from Turkey, Taher Koshen from Somalia, Goku from Japan, Valeek from Iran, and Hajime from Japan. 

And well doine to everyone esle who had a go but didn't get it quite right. The word I was looking for was fixtures. Listen to the end of the podcast for a new football phrase.

Let’s get on with this week’s three football stories!

Son Heung-min breaks his silence with a hat-trick

Son Heung-min had not scored in 8 games. In South Korea, this barren period was called Son’s silence and the mood in Asia was dark with World Cup warm up matches this weekend. Well, on Saturday, his performance off the bench must have been a relief, for the player and his country.

Leicester got off to a good start winning an early penalty. They do have some quality in attack and following an amazing goal from James Maddison were level at halftime. Straight after the break, Rodrigo Bentacur put the home side ahead with his first goal for the club and then after 59 minutes Richarlison was substituted for Son Heung-min.

Son Heung-min scored a blinder with his right from outside the area. Minutes later he scored again with a belter with his left, again from outside the area. His third goal looked too easy. His shot did take a deflection off the keeper, but that didn’t diminish the joy on his face as he held three fingers up in celebration ... or the joy heard around the stadium ... or the joy that was heard echoing across the world in South Korea

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 6 - Leicester City 2

The words I want to talk about from this story are barren, a blinder, a belter and to diminish.

We normally use the word barren to describe land where no plants will grow. So a desert is a barren place. OK, some plants grow in the desert, yes. But we use barren to describe land that you can’t use for growing plants for food, land that is not fertile enough to farm. So barren means unable to produce anything. We can also use barrent to talk about periods in an artist’s career when they are not able to produce art and in the story, I used it to describe a period in Son Heung-min’s career when he was not able to produce any goals. Fortunately for Spurs, this barren period is over.

The next two words are blinder and belter. In football English, these just mean really good goals. I think a blinder is a spectacular goal. Any really good goal could be described as a blinder. You can use the adjective to describe a goal or more generally for a match. If a sports person performs really well, you could call their performance a blinder, you could say that they played a blinder. A belter is also a surprisingly good performance, but it also implies power. To belt something means to hit something or to do something with force. Singers with powerful voices are said to belt out their songs. So if a performance or a shot is particularly good and powerful, you can call it a belter.

To diminish something means to reduce the size or importance of something. You can use the verb to diminish to talk about a reduction in the number of something but it is usually used to talk about more abstract qualities like confidence and support. So you might say that confidence in a politician diminished following a negative news report. Or perhaps support for a policy at work diminished when the people started losing their jobs. In the story, I said that the fact that Son Heung-min’s third goal took a deflection didn’t diminish the joy that the fans felt in seeing Son back at his best.

Let’s move on to the next story.

Ethan Nwaneri becomes Premier League’s youngest player

Mikel Arteta made history on Sunday when he brought on Ethan Nwaneri as a substitute for Arsenal against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. Nwaneri became the youngest player to appear in the top flight of English football and Arsenal’s youngest ever player at the tender age of 15 years and 181 days. The young midfielder has been with Arsenal since he was 9 years old and has been a regular in the under-18 side.

The Arsenal manager said that the team wants to give opportunities to talented young players and when the Gunners were coasting to a convincing win, that opportunity arose. As he made the substitution, he told the youngster “Congratulations and enjoy it.”

The Arsenal fans welcomed Nwaneri who in the minutes he had on the pitch managed at least a tackle.

Final score: Brentford 0 - Arsenal 3

The phrases I want to talk about from this story are the tender age of and a convincing win.

The adjective tender means gentle and loving. If a person is tender, they are gentle. A parent might stroke their child’s hair tenderly. We also use the word tender to describe meat that is perfectly cooked and soft and not tough or chewy. A third use is for injuries that are still a bit sensitive to touch. So if you have a bad bruise, the next day, you could say that it is a bit tender.
I’m not really sure how either of these meanings relates to the phrase tender age. If someone is at a tender age, they are young and inexperienced. So I guess that’s a combination of kind and soft, not yet hardened by experience and the cruel world.

A convincing win; this is a phrase that we’ve covered before. If you convince someone, you make them believe that you are right. If something is convincing, it makes you believe whatever it is supposed to show. A good example might be a video of a UFO or some supernatural phenomena. If you think that the video is real, you might say that it is very convincing. Or you might hear: I watched a documentary about a conspiracy theory, but it wasn’t very convincing. So in football English, a convincing win is a clear result at the end of a one sided match. I think any match with a three goal difference could be described as a convincing win for the winner.

Let’s move on to the last story.

Magpies stretch the Cherries to the limit

Newcastle United welcomed Bournemouth at St James’ Park on Saturday. The Magpies have had a respectable start to the season with only one loss so far. They are playing with a confident new style, valuing possession and pressing hard. They monopolised the ball, enjoying possession for 72% of the match, but the Cherries defended deep and soaked up all that attacking energy, giving Newcastle little to show for their efforts.

The Magpies were lacking two of their more improvisational midfielders which meant that Bournemouth’s caretaker manager Gary O’Neil was able to organise his team and anticipate their attacks. The most exciting moment of the match came after 62 minutes when Bournemouth countered. What looked like a tame strike from Jordan Zemura heading straight into Newcastle keeper Nick Pope’s arms was intercepted by Philip Billing whose tap redirected the ball out of reach of the keeper and put the visitors ahead.

Alexander Isak equalised from the penalty spot a few minutes later after VAR had confirmed that a handball had blocked Kieran Trippiers’ shot. But it was not enough to satisfy the crowds who felt they deserved more than a draw from their team’s performance.

Final score: Newcastle United 1 - AFC Bournemouth 1

The words I want to talk about from this story are to monopolise, improvisational and tame.

The verb to monopolise means to take complete control of something and to stop anyone else doing anything related to that thing. This comes from the noun monopoly which is normally a business or organisation that has complete control of a market. National companies often have a monopoly so in some countries, there’s only one water or electricity company and everyone has to buy their water or electricity from that company. The verb, to monopolise means to take over something as if you had a monopoly. It’s often used in a negative way to say that someone took over. So after a meeting you might say that the new manager monopolised the discussion. They didn’t let other people share their ideas. During the match, Newcastle monopolised the ball. They didn’t let Bournemouth get the ball.

The adjective improvisational means creative and inventive. It comes from the verb to improvise which means to create something at the time of use, not in advance. It’s most commonly used to talk about musicians who play jazz or similar music where the musicians create the music as they are playing. I think Indian classical music is often improvised. Another common use is when you have a problem that you hadn’t anticipated and you need to work out a solution on the spot. Sometimes, these solutions might seem a bit strange and you might hear someone say: I know it wasn’t the best way to solve the problem, but I didn’t have any tools so I had to improvise. An improvisational player is a player who can see opportunities and tactics on the pitch that were not first practised on the training ground. Players who can spot opportunities are much harder to defend against.

The last word I want to talk about is the adjective tame. The main meaning of this adjective is not wild. We use the word to describe animals that have got used to people and are not afraid or dangerous. So I knew someone who had rescued a baby squirrel. Squirrels are a bit like rats, but they have very fluffy tails and live in trees. They are cute, but normally they are wild animals and they run away from people. But my friend had a tame squirrel that would sit on his shoulder and take nuts from him. Some of the squirrels in the London parks are quite tame and will take food from your hand if you sit still. So the adjective tame is quite positive when used to describe an animal. However, when used in other ways, it is pretty negative. It means weak or not dangerous at all. So a tame shot on goal is easy to block. It’s not wild or dangerous.

OK. That’s 9 words or phrases today. The words and phrases from the stories were: barren, a blinder and a belter, to diminish, the tender age of, a convincing win, to monopolise something, improvisational and tame

Listen to the headlines one more time to hear these words and phrases in context.

Son Heung-min breaks his silence with a hat-trick

Son Heung-min had not scored in 8 games. In South Korea, this barren period was called Son’s silence and the mood in Asia was dark with World Cup warm up matches this weekend. Well, on Saturday, his performance off the bench must have been a relief, for the player and his country.

Leicester got off to a good start winning an early penalty. They do have some quality in attack and following an amazing goal from James Maddison were level at halftime. Straight after the break, Rodrigo Bentacur put the home side ahead with his first goal for the club and then after 59 minutes Richarlison was substituted for Son Heung-min.

Son Heung-min scored a blinder with his right from outside the area. Minutes later he scored again with a belter with his left, again from outside the area. His third goal looked too easy. His shot did take a deflection off the keeper, but that didn’t diminish the joy on his face as he held three fingers up in celebration ... or the joy heard around the stadium ... or the joy that was heard echoing across the world in South Korea

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 6 - Leicester City 2

Ethan Nwaneri becomes Premier League’s youngest player

Mikel Arteta made history on Sunday when he brought on Ethan Nwaneri as a substitute for Arsenal against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday. Nwaneri became the youngest player to appear in the top flight of English football and Arsenal’s youngest ever player at the tender age of 15 years and 181 days. The young midfielder has been with Arsenal since he was 9 years old and has been a regular in the under-18 side.

The Arsenal manager said that the team wants to give opportunities to talented young players and when the Gunners were coasting to a convincing win, that opportunity arose. As he made the substitution, he told the youngster “Congratulations and enjoy it.”

The Arsenal fans welcomed Nwaneri who in the minutes he had on the pitch managed at least a tackle.

Final score: Brentford 0 - Arsenal 3

Magpies stretch the Cherries to the limit

Newcastle United welcomed Bournemouth at St James’ Park on Saturday. The Magpies have had a respectable start to the season with only one loss so far. They are playing with a confident new style, valuing possession and pressing hard. They monopolised the ball, enjoying possession for 72% of the match, but the Cherries defended deep and soaked up all that attacking energy, giving Newcastle little to show for their efforts.

The Magpies were lacking two of their more improvisational midfielders which meant that Bournemouth’s caretaker manager Gary O’Neil was able to organise his team and anticipate their attacks. The most exciting moment of the match came after 62 minutes when Bournemouth countered. What looked like a tame strike from Jordan Zemura heading straight into Newcastle keeper Nick Pope’s arms was intercepted by Philip Billing whose tap redirected the ball out of reach of the keeper and put the visitors ahead.

Alexander Isak equalised from the penalty spot a few minutes later after VAR had confirmed that a handball had blocked Kieran Trippiers’ shot. But it was not enough to satisfy the crowds who felt they deserved more than a draw from their team’s performance.

Final score: Newcastle United 1 - AFC Bournemouth 1

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about the language again.

Here are 8 sentences with gaps in them and you have to complete the gaps with the correct form of the words and phrases from this podcast.

Number 1: I don’t want to ________ United’s victory, but City’s defence was terrible.

Number 2: Rashford scored with a ______ from outside the area.

Number 3: I’ll never forget my first match. I was taken to see Arsenal at Highbury by my grandpa at the ______ ___ of seven.

Number 4: We need a new midfielder who is creative and __________ so we can surprise our opponents.

Number 5: Following a spate of recent signings, Brazilian players have _________ the midfield.

Number 6: The striker has secured his place as a regular starting player following a series of ________ performances.

Number 7: After being allowed space by the opposing defenders, the 23-year-old sent a _______ effort towards goal which somehow slipped through the hands of the keeper.

Number 8: The striker looked relieved when he scored, marking the end of a frustrating _______ spell.

Leave your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website and I will go through them next week.

Football phrase

Now it’s time for this week’s football phrase.

This week, I’ve chosen another word that was suggested by Hsn from Turkey. This is an advanced word that’s used quite commonly in football English. This week, I will be happy if you can suggest the verb to ********* or the noun ************. The verb means to stop a passed ball before it gets to the target player. So a clever player might anticipate a pass and run to be able to get to the ball before the pass is completed. This is an ************.

If you know the answer, be sure to leave it in a comment on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

Before I finish, here are the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1. Mac Allister’s goal of the season contender has been ruled out by VAR.

Number 2. The striker pivoted and placed a text book finish into the corner.

Number 3. They weren’t ready for the pace of the winger and got caught napping when he drove the ball forward when play restarted.

Number 4. It wasn’t the longest winning streak but it was a great way to start this season’s campaign.

Number 5. When you visit the coast, if you keep an eye out, you might catch a glimpse of a seal or even a dolphin.

Number 6. By halftime, I was exhausted. I really had to dig deep to make it through the second half.

Number 7. At the beginning of the week, I lost my job and had to move out, but then I got a new job and have just found an even better place to live. It’s been a real emotional roller coaster.

Number 8. Thanks to hard won advances in vaccines and medicine, the battle against Covid is looking winnable.

Number 9. If you listen to podcasts and try to watch TV in English, it will pay off if you ever take an English exam.

That’s all I have time for today. Before I finish, I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast useful, and I hope all of you stay fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.