This Week: Happy New Year

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.

First of all ... Happy New Year!

The new year is here. It‘s 2023. I hope everyone listening had a fantastic New Year’s Eve and that you are all excited about the new year and have made lots of resolutions.

And it has been a great start to the new year for some ... especially Arsenal fans. Yes, it’s time for me to pick three stories from the recent round of matches and then to focus on some interesting vocabulary. In this episode, I am going to talk about Brighton’s game against Arsenal, Manchester City hosting Everton and Fulham’s match against Southampton.

Before I start with the stories and vocabulary today, I want to say thank you to everyone who has listened to these podcasts because this week, we have reached a massive milestone. We have recently broken through the 10 million downloads or listens mark. I started this podcast with Rich almost eight years ago and we watched the numbers growing steadily. For the first year, we hardly had any listeners. It was quite a challenge because Rich lives in Spain so we had to record our parts separately and then I would try to edit them together and ... well, we’re not very good actors so it wasn’t great. Then we learnt to record together and we started doing role plays and had lots of fun and I hope helped our listeners with lots of language. And then Rowan joined and recorded with us and it was even more fun. For the last year, I have been working on these podcasts on my own and I do miss working with Rich and Rowan, but it’s been lovely to get your feedback and to read all your comments on the Premier Skills English website. So again, I want to say thank you to everyone who listens to this podcast and helping us get to 10 million listens!

OK. Let’s get back to the stories from the Premier League.

The words and phrases from the stories this week that I want to talk about today are: in the pink, fired up, to stumble, stunning, to extend, composed, to frustrate, unfortunate and to snatch.

Listen out for these 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.

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

Last week’s phrase was a winning streak.

This is an unbroken series of victories. Usually, we use this phrase to say that a team has won every match they have played for as long as ... this lasts. I chose this phrase after reading an article on the Premier League website about Harry Kane who has scored in all 6 of his Boxing Day appearances and wants to keep this ****** going.

Congratulations to Vienguyenngo from Vietnam, CyberSam16 from Bahrain, Alex from Ukraine, Mehmet Sisman from Turkey, Goku from Japan, Hasan from Turkey, Fabs17 from Italy, Amal Khalafallah from Egypt, Chen Meng Tso from Taiwan, Welcome to Premier Skills English Chen Meng Tso, and congratulations to Hajime from Japan.

You all managed to work out that the phrase I was looking for was a winning streak.

Also welcome Cezario Abrantes form Brazil, thanks to you and everyone else who completed the task last week. I don’t think raisins in rice is a bad taste, I quite like a nice rice salad with raisins in, Cezario. Thanks Hajime, I have read about people in Japan eating KFC at christmas. That is a very strange tradition. In my family, we only eat fast food if we are travelling, though my wife loves the spicy wings from KFC and probably wishes we would travel more. Thanks for yoru answer Amal Khalafallah. I lived in Cairo for two and a half years and ate loads of lovely Egyptian food. I really miss the Koshari place that was near my flat. Oh, and Hawawshi from Falfalla downtown. Thanks Fabs17. One of my first teaching jobs was in Sicily and I ate so much Panettone. You can buy it in shops here now, even little ones in starbucks, but it was special for me back then. Thanks also Hasan. I remember Eid al-Adha in Cairo. Not so much for the food, but for the distribution of meat. And lastly, thanks to Alex from Ukraine for sharing Christmas wishes. It’s really lovely to hear from all of you.

OK! Now, it’s time to get on with this week’s three football stories!

Everton are in the pink at the Etihad

Everton travelled to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday to take on Manchester City. Everton were playing in their pink away kit and looked confident despite the roaring home crowd. After 24 minutes, Riyad Mahrez showed some spectacular skill when he twisted and turned his way through the pink wall of defenders before delivering a perfect pass to the feet of Erling Haarland who hit home, opening the scoring. Haaland was certainly fired up and seemed determined to get another when his enthusiasm got the better of him. He clattered into an opponent and was shown the yellow card.

Although City enjoyed the majority of the possession, Everton were doing well to hold them back and absorb their attacks. In the second half Rodri gave the ball away and Everton broke free. Demarai Gray delighted the visitors when he ran into the box. He stopped to see what support he had, then stumbled, and seeing there was nobody in a better position decided to go for goal and struck with a beautiful shot that swept past the keeper and into the top corner.

Final score: Manchester City 1 - Everton 1

The words and phrases I want to talk about from this story are: in the pink, fired up and to stumble.

If you are in the pink, you are well and healthy. I think it’s short for in the pink of health, but in the pink is more common. The phrase is mosty used in a figurative sense when someone is successful and happy and satisfied rather than just healthy. It’s a slightly old fashioned expression so you won’t hear it that often these days, but it’s a nice idiom and the BBC commentator on the City - Everton match used it so if you use it in a speaking exam, it should get you some points.

The next phrase is fired up. If you are fired up, you are very excited and often angry. When Harlaand scored, he was very excited and was running after every ball and looked determined to score again. You can talk about things that get you fired up. These days, I get quite fired up if I spend too long on twitter. You can also fire someone up which means to make someone become angry and excited. I once saw a speech at a protest march and the speaker really fired the crowd up or the speaker really got the crowd fired up.

The third item from this story is the verb to stumble. This means to step badly when you are walking, and maybe fall a little. Sometimes, you can stumble and quickly recover, other times you stumble and fall. So it means a little misstep that breaks your walking rhythm or in the case of Demarai Gray, his movement with the ball. My cousin owns a bar called the Stumble Inn which is a clever name because you can stumble into the bar and the word inn means bar or pub. I think people are probably more likely to stumble out.

Let’s move on to the next story.

Stunning start for league leaders

When the Gunners travelled to Brighton on Saturday, they knew that Man City had just dropped points at home and they had a chance to extend their lead at the top of the table. Brighton have been playing well and are a tough team to beat at home so it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for Arteta’s side.

The first goal came when Martinelli’s blocked shot fell to Saka who didn’t give the keeper a chance with a composed finish. Odegaard scored the second with a slightly mishit strike from a set piece. Just after the break, Martinelli struck again and again was blocked, but this time the ball fell to Nketiah and it looked like it was all over for the seagulls.

Brighton never gave up and got one back with a well crafted goal that started with a perfectly timed pass by Gross that was well taken by Mitoma who charged into the area.

Odegaard responded with a beautiful long ball into a space that only Martinelli could have run into. This time, his shot wasn’t blocked.

Brighton got another consolation goal when Evan Ferguson became the youngest ever Premier League goal scorer.

Final score: Brighton and Hove Albion 2 - Arsenal 4

The words from this story that I want to talk about are: stunning, to extend and composed.

The headline for this story was stunning start for league leaders. The word stunning normally means really beautiful or attractive. The verb to stun, means to shock or surprise someone. It can also mean to make someone temporarily unconscious or really confused by hitting them or zapping them with electricity. In the TV series Star Trek, the crew have special guns called phasers that they can set to stun, so they don’t kill their enemies, they just knock them out. I was in a car once and we hit a deer. I wasn’t driving. We hit the animal on the side of the head and I was sure that it would have been killed by the noise it made. But when we turned around to check on it, the poor deer was walking around the road. It was stunned. It wasn’t happy and well, but it was still walking and looked like it should recover. Now, if you see something that is so beautiful that you are momentarily stopped and overwhelmed, so that all you can do is say: wow, then you are stunned. The thing you are looking at is stunning. To be honest, I think we use the word stunning for things that are well, slightly less beautiful than that, it normally just means really beautiful, but I hope you get the idea.

The verb to extend means to make something bigger or longer. It’s commonly used to talk about contracts. If you have a short contract to work somewhere and when the contract is up, the company you are working for wants you to work for longer, they might extend your contract. Another common use is for houses. If you want to make your house bigger, perhaps you can build into your garden a bit. What you are doing is extending your house. In both these cases, it’s common to use the noun extension. So you can have a contract extension or a house extension. In the story, Arsenal were able to extend their lead at the top of the table, They were five points ahead of City. When City only managed a draw, Arsenal had the chance to extend their lead to seven points.

The last wired from this story that I want to talk about is composed. I have spoken about this before, but it’s such an important word in football ENglish that I hope you don’t mind me talking about it again. You see, it means calm and in control of your emotions. If you receive some really bad news and want to shout and scream, but you don’t, you manage to keep control, you are staying composed. In football, you often see amazing players lose their cool when they have a chance to score. The pressure is so great, that when they have a chance, they lose their cool and rush it. Shots that these players would make every time on the training ground now sail high over the goal. I was delighted to see Saka stay composed when the ball fell to him on Saturday. I think that a couple of seasons ago, he might have over hit the ball or rushed the shot, but now he’s more confident and stayed cool, calm and in control. He stayed composed.

Let’s move on to the final story.

Fulham frustrate the Saints

Southampton’s defensive dam burst after 30 minutes when Pereira hit a powerful volley off a corner kick that took an unfortunate deflection off the boot of James Ward-Prowse and was marked down as an own goal.

In the second half, the home side gave away a free kick within striking range of their goal. James Ward-Prowse can be deadly from that range and proved it when he placed the ball perfectly in the top right, having curled the ball round Fulham’s defensive wall.

Bottom of the table Southampton probably deserved to leave Craven Cottage with a point, but they were denied when João Palhinha headed home in the 88th minute to snatch the lead.

Final score: Fulham 2 - Southampton 1

The words from this story that I want to talk about are: to frustrate, unfortunate and to snatch.

To frustrate can mean to annoy someone. The adjective frustrated describes a special type of anger that you feel when someone stops you from doing what you want to do. So the verb to frustrate can mean to make someone feel angry because you stop them doing or achieving something. People often get frustrated by politicians when they don’t do what they promised to do before an election. Another way that we use the verb to frustrate is to say that you are blocking or stopping someone from doing what they wanted or from being successful. So in the headline, I said Fulham frustrated the Saints because the Saints or Southampton travelled to Craven Cottage with a game plan that they hope would have led to them leaving with some points, but Fulham stopped Southampton, they frustrated Southampton, especially because the match was pretty even and they were drawing right up till the 88th minute.

The next word is an adjective. Unfortunate means unlucky. Normally, we use lucky and unlucky to talk about small events that are either positive or negative, but are things that are not controlled by the person they affect. I think for more significant events or circumstances, we say they are fortunate or unfortunate. An own goal is a pretty big deal and unlucky doesn’t seem quite meaningful enough.

The last word I want to talk about today is the verb to snatch. This means to take something quickly and roughly. The quick part is the most important part, though you can’t snatch something carefully. If you snatch something, you just make a wild grab. So I saw a video recently of someone walking down a street talking on his phone when someone rode past on a bike and reached out and snatched the phone from the person’s hand. It’s often used to describe the way criminals take the things they steal.

OK. That’s nine words and phrases from the stories today. The words and phrases were:in the pink, fired up, to stumble, stunning, to extend, composed, to frustrate, unfortunate and to snatch.
Listen to the stories again to hear the language in context.

Everton are in the pink at the Etihad

Everton travelled to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday to take on Manchester City. Everton were playing in their pink away kit and looked confident despite the roaring home crowd. After 24 minutes, Riyad Mahrez showed some spectacular skill when he twisted and turned his way through the pink wall of defenders before delivering a perfect pass to the feet of Erling Haarland who hit home, opening the scoring. Haaland was certainly fired up and seemed determined to get another when his enthusiasm got the better of him. He clattered into an opponent and was shown the yellow card.

Although City enjoyed the majority of the possession, Everton were doing well to hold them back and absorb their attacks. In the second half Rodri gave the ball away and Everton broke free. Demarai Gray delighted the visitors when he ran into the box. He stopped to see what support he had, then stumbled, and seeing there was nobody in a better position decided to go for goal and struck with a beautiful shot that swept past the keeper and into the top corner.

Final score: Manchester City 1 - Everton 1

Stunning start for league leaders

When the Gunners travelled to Brighton on Saturday, they knew that Man City had just dropped points at home and they had a chance to extend their lead at the top of the table. Brighton have been playing well and are a tough team to beat at home so it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for Arteta’s side.

The first goal came when Martinelli’s blocked shot fell to Saka who didn’t give the keeper a chance with a composed finish. Odegaard scored the second with a slightly mishit strike from a set piece. Just after the break, Martinelli struck again and again was blocked, but this time the ball fell to Nketiah and it looked like it was all over for the seagulls.

Brighton never gave up and got one back with a well crafted goal that started with a perfectly timed pass by Gross that was well taken by Mitoma who charged into the area.

Odegaard responded with a beautiful long ball into a space that only Martinelli could have run into. This time, his shot wasn’t blocked.

Brighton got another consolation goal when Evan Ferguson became the youngest ever Premier League goal scorer.

Final score: Brighton and Hove Albion 2 - Arsenal 4

Fulham frustrate the Saints

Southampton’s defensive dam burst after 30 minutes when Pereira hit a powerful volley off a corner kick that took an unfortunate deflection off the boot of James Ward-Prowse and was marked down as an own goal.

In the second half, the home side gave away a free kick within striking range of their goal. James Ward-Prowse can be deadly from that range and proved it when he placed the ball perfectly in the top right, having curled the ball round Fulham’s defensive wall.

Bottom of the table Southampton probably deserved to leave Craven Cottage with a point, but they were denied when João Palhinha headed home in the 88th minute to snatch the lead.

Final score: Fulham 2 - Southampton 1

Language Challenge

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

Here are 9 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. When I heard the news I was so angry. It was very hard to stay ________ after that.

Number 2. Due to an __________ typo, the team had to reprint the match programme.

Number 3.The team were looking confident and playing well and they will be __ ___ ____ if they can score a first-ever win.

Number 4.My sister is going to have another baby. I think she’s going to have to ______ her house.

Number 5. I visited Rome to celebrate my birthday. It’s an amazing city with so much history and some ________ architecture.

Number 6. Oxfam believes climate change is ___________ the efforts of millions to escape poverty.

Number 7. The manager got the team all _____ __ in the dressing room at half time.

Number 8. She _________ the photos out of his hand before he had a chance to look at them.

Number 9. The attacking player turned and ran into the box and looked like she might score, but she turned too far and ________ and lost control of the ball.

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

Task

Last week, I really enjoyed reading your answers to the questions about Christmas so I have another task for you. As it’s the New Year, it is customary to make New Year’s resolutions and to think about the year ahead. So I would like you to make some resolutions and predictions. Resolutions are like promises you make to yourself about things you want to do better at or change in your life. So I have too many resolutions to share with you all, but one, that I’m afraid I make every year is to lose some weight and get more exercise.

So question 1: What are your new year’s resolutions? Have you made any interesting resolutions this year? Is there anything in your life that you want to change?

Question 2: What predictions can you make for this year? Who do you think will win the Premier League? What amazing events will occur this year? Will there be any big scientific breakthroughs? Will there be any major political changes? 2022 was quite a momentous year. Will things be better in 2023?

Share your ideas in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Football phrase

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

I took today’s phrase from the match report on the Brighton website for the match I spoke about earlier. In the report, it said that Brighton had a ******** ** ***** when they were faced with a 2 goal deficit after 39 minutes. So this phrase is used to say that someone of a team faces a massive challenge. If you have a really big job ahead of you, especially if you’re not sure if you can do it, you could say that you have a ******** ** *****.

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 Christmas Challenge.

Number 1. Traditional Christmas songs share part of their name with lots of girls. What are they called? They are Christmas Carols.

Number 2. Children in the UK always wish for a white Christmas, but what is it that makes a Christmas white? Snow is what makes a Christmas a white Christmas.

Number 3. Santa is an abbreviated form of which Christian saint? The answer is Saint Nicholas who was a Turkish Christian Saint, I think.

Number 4. Before people in the UK start their Christmas dinner, they work together to open small presents which normally contain weird little toys, a joke, a paper hat and a tiny explosive. What are they? These are Christmas Crackers and my kids love them.

Number 5. What do people decorate with lights, tinsel and baubles and put presents under? People decorate Christmas trees.

Number 6. As well as mince pies, a type of meat is traditionally eaten at Christmas that is rarely eaten at other times. What is it? Turkey is traditionally eaten at Christmas.

Number 7. Pigs in blankets are eaten in lots of different countries, but the ingredients are different, especially the blankets. In the UK, what are pigs and what are their blankets? Pigs in blankets are little sausages wrapped in bacon.

Number 8. What adjective is collocated with Christmas in the most common Christmas greeting? The adjective is Merry. People do also say happy Christmas, but merry Christmas is a stronger collocation.

And 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.