This Week: A ray of hope

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.

I have received several requests for the podcast transcript. I know that lots of listeners find it useful to read and listen at the same time. However, I can’t share the transcript with the podcast directly, that’s not possible on the podcast platform. But I do publish the transcript every week on the page for the podcast on Premier Skills English. You can find the transcript and there’s a comment section where you can share your ideas and your answers for the football phrase and the language challenge. So please, if you enjoy the podcast and would like to have a go at the task, the language challenge and the football phase, visit britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish or just search for Premier Skills English. On the website, you’ll see links to all the recent podcast episodes on the front page.

This week, I’ve got three stories for you. I’m going to start with Leeds United’s trip to Wolverhampton and then I’ll talk about Aston Villa hosting Bournemouth and finally, I’ll talk about Arsenal who hosted Crystal Palace.

The words and phrases from the stories that I’m going to talk about this week are:

• to go your way
• to be short lived
• a moment of confusion
• formula
• to anticipate
• inevitable
• fabulous
• relentless
• a ray of hope

Football phrase

But before I get to this week’s stories, I want to give you the answer to last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week, here’s one more chance to guess now.

Last week’s football phrase was ********* ****. This is the name for the bottom three places in the league table. This is an unfortunate place for a team to be because at the end of the season the teams in these positions won’t play in the Premier League in the following season.

Congratulations to Shikabala from Egypt, Denis2000 from Belarus, Hasan from Turkey, Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam, Miguel_js from Brazil, welcome to Premier Skills English Miguel_js. Congratulations to Ryohei and Isshin from Japan, Cezario Abrantes from Brazil, Yury Nimeni from Belarus and Inglewood from Japan. Welcome to Premier Skills English Yury and Inglewod. It’s lovely to have new people here. You all worked out that the phrase I was looking for was relegation zone.

I was really happy to read your responses to the task last week. I said last week that I’m hoping to make some podcasts about football and different countries so it’s fantastic to read from you. I really enjoyed your response Ryohei when you said football is a drug. I can understand that too, though I only ever play football with my kids these days. A few people said they love the unpredictable nature of the matches. I agree - I like that a goal is something really special and you don’t get too many of them. I also loved what Denis2000 said about the simplicity of the game. You really don’t need much. If you have a ball and some friends, you’ve got a game.

I think what I like best about football is the way it brings people together. I worked in the British Council office in Jakarta about 10 years ago and the director was a big Everton fan. Normally, the director in the British Council is an important person and they are quite hard to talk to because they are busy and concerned with important things. But this guy, Keith was his name, would get into excited discussions about football with anyone in the office. Football crossed all the tricky social boundaries and was a way for people to talk and be friends, people who might find it difficult to just chat normally. I really love that about football.

There will be a new football phrase and task for you to complete after the stories and vocabulary.

Now it’s time for this week’s first story. When you listen, I’d like you to try to answer the following question:

Who set a new record for the season?

Wolverhampton Wanderers have a bad day

It wasn’t a good day for Wolverhampton Wanderers when they welcomed Leeds United on Saturday. The home side played well; they had more possession, made more shots, more than twice as many as their opponents and won more corners. They even scored what may be remembered as one of the goals of the season. But as the rain poured down at Molineux Stadium, nothing else went Wolves' way.

Leeds United got off to a great start, opening the scoring after 26 minutes. Wilifired Gnonto played a beautiful cross that was confidently dispatched by Jack Harrison.

Leeds got their second from a corner kick after some confusion about who was marking who left Luke Ayling free and clear to head home what must have been one of the easiest goals of his career.

After 61 minutes, Rasmus Kristensen was brought on and within a minute, he fired Leeds into a three goal lead. Kristensen ran into the area where Castro Jonny was controlling the ball and slipped a cheeky toe through Jonny’s legs to punt the ball free. Kristensen leapt forward and drilled the ball through the legs of Jose Sa.

Jonny must have been steaming, but he didn’t let it disturb him when minutes later, he scored. Illan Meslier had run out to head the ball away, but was then out of position and the ball wasn’t really cleared. Leeds Marc Roca tried to flick the ball up, but only as far as Jonny who coolly volleyed the ball over the keeper with a long distance lob from 41 yards, making it the longest strike in the Premier League since 2017.

Not long after, Wolves were given hope when Matheus Cunha’s low shot caught a deflection of Max Wober which wrongfooted Meslier and hit the target.

However, that hope was short-lived as minutes later, Jonny was sent off for a serious foul on Ayling and Wolves were down to 10.

The victory was sealed following another moment of confusion when Wolves were so sure Adama Traore had been fouled that they all stopped and looked to the referee. Leeds United’s Crysencio Summerville didn’t stop. He ran past the confused Wolves defenders and chipped the ball over Jose Sa for the win.

Final score: Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 - 4 Leeds United

Before the story, I asked you:

Who set a new record for the season?

The answer is: Castro Jonny. On balance, Jonny didn’t have a great afternoon. He was robbed in the area which led to a Leeds goal and later he was sent off. But between these events, he scored with a beautiful long range strike from 41 yards or 37 metres, the longest Premier League strike in 6 years.

The phrases from the story that I want to talk about are:

• to go your way
• to be short-lived
• a moment of confusion

When there’s an unknown outcome, perhaps in a competition or an important decision made by your boss or an official group, that outcome might be good for one person or group but bad for another. For example, a coin toss. Each match is started with a coin toss. The referee flips a coin to see who kicks off. So the outcome of the coin toss is good for one team and bad for the other. You can say that the coin toss went Wolves' way, if Wolves won the toss. Or you can say that the coin toss went against Wolves if they lost the toss.

So a judge’s decision might go your way, if it helps you. And anything that has an element of chance might go your way. Or, as with Wolves in the story, nothing goes your way. Whenever there was any confusion, it went against Wolves. They were unlucky and the referee’s decisions all seemed to go against them.

If something is short-lived, it doesn’t exist for very long. When Wolves scored their second goal, they were only one goal down and the team were given hope. But that hope didn’t last for very long as Jonny was sent off and Leeds scored again. The hope was short-lived. The adjective is commonly collocated with success. You might read about companies that enjoyed short-lived success. You also hear about short-lived relationships, romantic relationships between people who work out that they don’t really like each other.

The last phrase I want to talk about from this story is a moment of confusion. A moment is a short period of time. If you have a meeting and you have to go to another company’s office, the receptionist might ask you to ‘wait for a moment’ while they call the person you are meeting. A moment of confusion describes a short period when nobody seems to know what’s going on. When Adama Traore thought he had been fouled, he and the rest of Wolves stopped and looked to the referee. They were surprised and confused for a short period. It was a moment of confusion.

Now it’s time for this week’s second story. When you listen, I’d like you to try to answer the following question:

Who scored first for Aston Villa?

Villa find their form against Bournemouth

Since Unai Emery took over in October, Aston Villa have played better, but they have still been unpredictable. Villa have some great players and should have had a more competitive season, but have not really made the most of their bench ... until now? Judging by the results of the last few matches, the formula seems to be working.

Douglas Luiz got things moving after seven minutes with a long run down the left. He played the ball wide to Watkins who fired it back across the penalty area. Unfortunately, there was no striker to meet it, but Leon Bailey collected the cross and pulled it back. This time, Luiz was on hand to finish the move by tapping the ball into the net.

Bournemouth did their best to make things difficult for the Villans. They had some good chances and put pressure on the home side’s defence, but failed to break though. Twice, they came incredibly close to equalising. Once when an impressive free kick streaked over the Villa wall. Martinez anticipated the placing and made a tremendous save. The second closest they came was when Solanke got free and charged at the goal. Somehow, Watkins made up the distance and slid in to block the shot.

In the last 10 minutes, Watkins ran to catch a slightly over-hit long pass. He kept the ball in play before pulling it back for Ramsey who darted through and doubled the home team’s lead.

Bournemouth looked broken. For the last 10 minutes of the match, Bournemouth could barely get out of their penalty area. The goalkeeper and defenders made a valiant effort blocking shots and scrambling to defend corners, but the third goal was inevitable. A beautifully flighted corner kick was flicked on by Mings for Buendia to head home.

Final score: Aston Villa 3 - 0 AFC Bournemouth

Before the story, I asked you:

Who scored first for Aston Villa?

The answer is: Douglas Luiz. I said that Luiz got things moving which means he started the scoring. Luiz got things moving with a run down the wing and then scored when Leon Bailey pulled the ball back.

The phrases from the story that I want to talk about are:

• formula
• to anticipate
• inevitable

A formula is an accepted way of doing something. It’s a bit like a recipe, instructions you follow to make food, but for things other than food. I suppose a recipe is a formula. In science, in chemistry, a formula is the way to describe the atoms that are in a molecule, the chemical composition of a substance. H2O is the formula for water. In maths, a formula is the way of calculating something. If you want to calculate the area of a circle, you need to know the formula. But in normal use, a formula is just a way of doing something. Most commonly, you hear people talking about formulas that help them do something difficult. People talk about a winning formula or a formula for success.

The verb to anticipate means to be prepared for something. It means to act before something happens. So I said that Martinez anticipated a free kick so he was able to block it. In sport, it’s important to try to anticipate your opponent’s moves. Some players are really good at dummies and moves to stop their opponents from anticipating their next move. They make their opponents go the wrong way. The noun form anticipation, describes a feeling that’s a bit like excitement and nervousness before something happens.

The last word from this story that I want to talk about is inevitable. If something is inevitable, there is nothing you can do to stop it from happening. So if a non-league team plays against a Premier League team, you might say that the result is inevitable. There is no positive form. I guess avoidable is the closest thing, but that has a negative form unavoidable. We use unavoidable for small-scale results. So you might have unavoidable problems at work or there might be unavoidable consequences when you have children. But the adjective inevitable is used for more momentous results. Disasters and events that have an impact on lots of people are more likely to be described as inevitable.

Now it’s time for this week’s third story. When you listen, I’d like you to try to answer the following question:

Which ex-Arsenal player didn’t make it to the match?

Arsenal cruises past Crystal Palace

Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League on Sunday with an impressive display against Crystal Palace. The South London club made the trip to the Emirates without their manager, Arsenal legend Patrick Viera, who was sacked following a sorry series of results and no wins so far this year.

From the start, Arsenal looked in control. Bukayo Saka turned up the heat with an urgent pass to Martinelli. Palace weren’t ready for the sudden change in pace and this let Martinelli glide past Joel Ward before scoring with a fabulous finish.

Shortly before half time, Saka doubled their advantage. After a relentless series of attacks, Saka got on the end of a through ball and fired home with a very confident strike.

Arsenal got their third on the counter when Trossard squeezed a ball through. Granit Xhaka, with Palace defenders piling in on both sides, didn’t hesitate and forced the ball home.

Crystal Palace got a consolation goal from a corner kick, their first goal in four games. The ball was played too low to be headed in, but dropped for Jeffery Schlup to push over the line.

This ray of hope energised the visitors and they almost scored again. A poor clearance was intercepted and fired back to Schlup who played a quick through ball for Zaha whose strike flew across the face of the goal.

The result had never really been in doubt. After 74 minutes, Arsenal were on the attack again. Palace left Saka unmarked and paid the price when Tierney pulled the ball back for Saka to get his 13th goal of the season with a smart finish.

Final score: Arsenal 4 - 1 Crystal Palace

Before the story, I asked you:

Which ex-Arsenal player didn’t make it to the match?

The answer is: Patrick Viera. The last time Arsenal had scored as many points as they have this season, was during the ‘invincible’ campaign when they didn’t lose a match and Viera was Arsenal’s captain. However, his time as manager at Palace has not been as successful and he was sacked 48 hours before Palace’s trip to his old club.

The phrases from the story that I want to talk about are:

• fabulous
• relentless
• a ray of hope

The adjective fabulous really just means very good or excellent. But it has connotations of showy or visually impressive. I think that fabulous things stand out, they are so good that they look unusual and different because of how good they are. It’s commonly used to praise the way someone is dressed or the style of a room if the design is unusual, in a good way.

If something is relentless, it doesn’t stop. The verb form to relent, is quiet difficult to explain. If you ask your boss if you can have a day off and your boss says no and you ask again and they say no and you ask again and they say no and you ask again and they relent, they finally stop saying no and let you have the day off. So when people in authority stop restricting or controlling something or perhaps just relax a little, you can say they relent. So to relent means to stop controlling or bothering something. So when something is relentless, it doesn't stop; it continues whatever it is doing, usually something that bothers you, without stopping or softening.

The last phrase from the stories today is a ray of hope. A ray is a beam of light, a narrow column of light that you can see when it passes through steam or smoke or dust. Sometimes, when there are lots of clouds, the sun breaks through and you can see straight lines where the sun shines through gaps. These are rays. If something is a ray of hope, it offers or gives people hope when otherwise they would be hopeless. So a new medical treatment may be described as a ray of hope for all the people who are suffering from a disease. When Schlup scored for Crystal palace, this was a ray of hope for Palace and their fans.

OK, that's 9 words and phrases from the stories today. The words and phrases were:

• to go your way
• to be short lived
• a moment of confusion
• formula
• to anticipate
• inevitable
• fabulous
• relentless
• a ray of hope

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

Wolverhampton Wanderers have a bad day

It wasn’t a good day for Wolverhampton Wanderers when they welcomed Leeds United on Saturday. The home side played well; they had more possession, made more shots, more than twice as many as their opponents and won more corners. They even scored what may be remembered as one of the goals of the season. But as the rain poured down at Molineux Stadium, nothing else went Wolves' way.

Leeds United got off to a great start, opening the scoring after 26 minutes. Wilifired Gnonto played a beautiful cross that was confidently dispatched by Jack Harrison.

Leeds got their second from a corner kick after some confusion about who was marking who left Luke Ayling free and clear to head home what must have been one of the easiest goals of his career.

After 61 minutes, Rasmus Kristensen was brought on and within a minute, he fired Leeds into a three goal lead. Kristensen ran into the area where Castro Jonny was controlling the ball and slipped a cheeky toe through Jonny’s legs to punt the ball free. Kristensen leapt forward and drilled the ball through the legs of Jose Sa.

Jonny must have been steaming, but he didn’t let it disturb him when minutes later, he scored. Illan Meslier had run out to head the ball away, but was then out of position and the ball wasn’t really cleared. Leeds Marc Roca tried to flick the ball up, but only as far as Jonny who coolly volleyed the ball over the keeper with a long distance lob from 41 yards, making it the longest strike in the Premier League since 2017.

Not long after, Wolves were given hope when Matheus Cunha’s low shot caught a deflection of Max Wober which wrongfooted Meslier and hit the target.

However, that hope was short-lived as minutes later, Jonny was sent off for a serious foul on Ayling and Wolves were down to 10.

The victory was sealed following another moment of confusion when Wolves were so sure Adama Traore had been fouled that they all stopped and looked to the referee. Leeds United’s Crysencio Summerville didn’t stop. He ran past the confused Wolves defenders and chipped the ball over Jose Sa for the win.

Final score: Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 - 4 Leeds United

 

Villa find their form against Bournemouth

Since Unai Emery took over in October, Aston Villa have played better, but they have still been unpredictable. Villa have some great players and should have had a more competitive season, but have not really made the most of their bench ... until now? Judging by the results of the last few matches, the formula seems to be working.

Douglas Luiz got things moving after seven minutes with a long run down the left. He played the ball wide to Watkins who fired it back across the penalty area. Unfortunately, there was no striker to meet it, but Leon Bailey collected the cross and pulled it back. This time, Luiz was on hand to finish the move by tapping the ball into the net.

Bournemouth did their best to make things difficult for the Villans. They had some good chances and put pressure on the home side’s defence, but failed to break though. Twice, they came incredibly close to equalising. Once when an impressive free kick streaked over the Villa wall. Martinez anticipated the placing and made a tremendous save. The second closest they came was when Solanke got free and charged at the goal. Somehow, Watkins made up the distance and slid in to block the shot.

In the last 10 minutes, Watkins ran to catch a slightly over-hit long pass. He kept the ball in play before pulling it back for Ramsey who darted through and doubled the home team’s lead.

Bournemouth looked broken. For the last 10 minutes of the match, Bournemouth could barely get out of their penalty area. The goalkeeper and defenders made a valiant effort blocking shots and scrambling to defend corners, but the third goal was inevitable. A beautifully flighted corner kick was flicked on by Mings for Buendia to head home.

Final score: Aston Villa 3 - 0 AFC Bournemouth

 

Arsenal cruises past Crystal Palace

Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League on Sunday with an impressive display against Crystal Palace. The South London club made the trip to the Emirates without their manager, Arsenal legend Patrick Viera, who was sacked following a sorry series of results and no wins so far this year.

From the start, Arsenal looked in control. Bukayo Saka turned up the heat with an urgent pass to Martinelli. Palace weren’t ready for the sudden change in pace and this let Martinelli glide past Joel Ward before scoring with a fabulous finish.

Shortly before half time, Saka doubled their advantage. After a relentless series of attacks, Saka got on the end of a through ball and fired home with a very confident strike.

Arsenal got their third on the counter when Trossard squeezed a ball through. Granit Xhaka, with Palace defenders piling in on both sides, didn’t hesitate and forced the ball home.

Crystal Palace got a consolation goal from a corner kick, their first goal in four games. The ball was played too low to be headed in, but dropped for Jeffery Schlup to push over the line.

This ray of hope energised the visitors and they almost scored again. A poor clearance was intercepted and fired back to Schlup who played a quick through ball for Zaha whose strike flew across the face of the goal.

The result had never really been in doubt. After 74 minutes, Arsenal were on the attack again. Palace left Saka unmarked and paid the price when Tierney pulled the ball back for Saka to get his 13th goal of the season with a smart finish.

Final score: Arsenal 4 - 1 Crystal Palace

 

Language challenge

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

Your challenge this week is to complete the gaps in the following sentences with the correct forms of the words and phrases that I’ve spoken about in this podcast. I have taken all of these sentences from news websites and edited them slightly.

Number 1.The manager told reporters: 'It's not luck, the winning _______ behind a successful academy programme is a holistic approach to sport and education.’

Number 2. The cherry blossom bloom is _________, but it doesn’t diminish their overwhelming beauty.

Number 3. There was a _______________ when 3 cyclists crashed by the finish line.

Number 4. The travel industry ___________ record numbers of travellers this summer now that covid restrictions have been eased.

Number 5. If the court's decision _____________, you can expect a payout of nearly million.

Number 6. Flight delays and cancellations are __________ during the peak summer holiday period.

Number 7. Last weekend, shoppers rushed to find _________ Mother's day presents.

Number 8. The agreement between the region’s heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran has brought a ____________ for stability and peace in the Middle East.

Number 9. Strong winds and __________ rain are forecast for the remainder of this week in the UK.

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

Task

Your task this week is a bit different.

For the next few weeks, you task will be to complete some sentences. Last week, you completed sentences about the thing you love most about football. This week I have a slightly more difficult sentence for you to finish off. Can you please complete this sentence in the comments section on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English?

One thing people don’t know about football in my country is ...

I’ll say it again.

One thing people don’t know about football in my country is ...

Share your ideas in the comments section on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

Football phrase

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

This week’s football phrase was suggested by Hasan from Turkey. I have not used it in this week’s podcast. The phrase is a ***-*** ****. This is a movement used by two players to go between defenders. So if a player is running towards the opposition goal, when he or she meets a defender, they might **** the ball to a team mate and then keep running past the defender. If the movement is done

right, the teammate ****** the ball back directly by kicking it into the path of their running teammate.

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, I am going to go through the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1. A cross to the back post found the heel of Jazz Younger, whose effort trickled into the bottom corner giving the Blues a late lead.

Number 2. The Match of the Day host tweeted: "An incredibly impressive young man and a wonderful footballer. Congratulations @BukayoSaka87."

Number 3. The 2018 world player of the year leapfrogged ex-England star Jonny Wilkinson into second place in the standings during last month’s win over France

Number 4. The two consultants were often butting heads as they struggled to agree on a style and vision, resulting in mixed feedback from the senior managers.

Number 5. The Blues seemed to be on course for a second Champions League final, but then they conceded a couple of sloppy goals and the dream ended.

Number 6. Global warming is going to cause more intense droughts and wet periods, which affects people, the economy, and agriculture around the world.

Number 7. Farmers have warned that new supermarket fees could risk the survival of their businesses.

Number 8. Liverpool and Everton stars had to be held back from scrapping as tempers boiled over on Monday night.

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.