This Week: Arsenal and Crystal Palace kick off the new season

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: reinforce, resilience, inadvertently, to start with a bang, plain sailing, bizarre, turmoil, compatriot and a live wire.

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.

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.

This week’s football phrase is *******. This is the word for a woman who is admired for her strength or achievements or other outstanding characteristics. The word is different for men. I think the word comes from classical stories and means women who went on quests to fight monsters. Today, we use it to talk about women who inspire us and who we really respect.

Congratulations to Douglas Cartier from Brazil, Vietnguyengo from Vietnam, Hsn from Turkey, HarryKien from Vietnam, Taher Koshen from Somalia, Gabeced from Brazil and Parnian from Iran. You all managed to work out that the word I was looking for was heroine. I also want to congratulate Goku and Hiracky16 from Japan who made good guesses.

Listen till the end of the podcast for a new football phrase.

OK, let’s get on with this week’s three football stories!

Arsenal and Crystal Palace kick of the new season

It’s a new season, new players, new teams and a new start for Arsenal who had lost their way a bit at the end of last season. The Gunners young squad has been reinforced by two summer signings from Man City. Gabriel Jesus electrified the front line while Oleksandr Zinchenko helped set up the first goal with a clever set-piece that excited fans. Saka appeared to overhit a corner but it was, in fact, timed to perfection for the Ukrainian defender Zinchenko who had made an unchecked run and headed the ball for Gabriel Martinelli who scored after 20 minutes.

Crystal Palace fought back fiercely and it took resilience to hold onto that lead and the game wasn’t really safe until the 85th minute when Marc Guehi inadvertently headed Bukayo Saka’s cross into his own net.

Final score: Crystal Palace 0 - Arsenal 2

The words I want to talk about from this story are to reinforce, resilience and inadvertently.

If you need to make something stronger, you need to reinforce it. You can add supports to walls to reinforce them. In the army, sometimes more troops might be sent to reinforce a camp or checkpoint and ideas can be reinforced by facts that support them.

Resilience is an advanced noun that means the ability to be successful or at least to continue after experiencing something difficult. So if a football team can keep playing and attacking after conceding a goal or having a player sent off, they are showing resilience.

The adverb inadvertently means in a way that was not deliberate. It is very similar to accidentally. I looked up the difference and if something is done inadvertently, it is because of an oversight or something that should have been avoided, but accidentally means by chance so not something that could be avoided. The adjective inadvertent is the negative form of advertent, but I don’t remember the last time I came across the positive form. Inadvertent and inadvertently are both quite common.

Let’s move on to the next story.

Spurs sink Southampton in style

Tottenham’s season started with a bang on Saturday as they welcomed Southampton and delighted their fans with the most exciting scoreline of the weekend.

However, it wasn’t plain sailing from the start. After 12 minutes, the visitors scored. An early strike from James Ward-Prowse shocked the home side, but they soon bounced back with goals from Ryan Sessegnon and Eric Dier.

After the break, the Saints were feeling the pressure as Spurs continued to launch wave after wave of attacks. The result of one produced a bizarre own goal when Mohamed Salisu the Ghanain defender failed to find his feet and powered what was supposed to be a clearance into the corner of the Southampton goal.

Two minutes later, Dejan Kuluveski, who had been playing a great game scored a fourth goal for Spurs sealing a fantastic win at the start of the season.

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 4 - Southampton 1

The three words and phrases I want to look at from this story are: to start with a bang, plain sailing and bizarre.

If something starts with a bang, it begins in a very fun and exciting way. You might hear someone say that a film started with a bang, meaning something very exciting happened at the beginning of the film.

To be plain sailing is an idiom that means that something is easy and without problems. It comes from sailing a boat. If there is a gentle breeze and the water is calm, the sailing will be easy. However, if the waves are large, things will be more difficult.

The adjective bizarre means very strange and unusual, often in a way that is slightly surprising or even funny. We use different words to say things are strange. We use the word odd when something is strange but makes us uncomfortable, spooky if it’s strange and a bit scary and bizarre when it’s strange but we quite like it or find it funny.

Let’s move on to the final story.

Aaronson inspires Leeds to victory

When Leeds United survived the relegation turmoil at the end of the last season, Jesse Marsch the American coach knew he needed some fresh talent and found it in compatriot Brenden Aaronson who was the live wire at Elland Road on Saturday against Wolves, setting the pace and intensity for his teammates and finally forcing an own goal which won the match and the first three points of the campaign for Leeds.

Wolves did not have a great match and the performance will have given Bruno Lage something to think about.

Since Marsch’s arrival at Leeds in February, he has struggled to get the team to implement his tactics. However, after a full pre-season and the addition of players that will fit into his 4-2-2-2 system, Leeds are looking a lot more vital and although the manager admits that there is still a lot of work to do, the team is looking like it could be this season’s dark horse.

The words I want to focus on from this story are: turmoil, compatriot and live wire.

The noun turmoil is used to describe a state of disorder and uncertainty. After a disaster, you might hear reporters saying that the area hit by the disaster is in turmoil. Last season, five teams were fighting the relegation battle and it was not certain who was going to stay in the Premier League so I described it as the relegation turmoil.

A compatriot is someone who comes from the same country as someone else. So if someone comes from the same country as you, they are your compatriots. My compatriots are other English people. Arsenal’s new forward Gabriel Jesus is from Brazil and he’s joined three of his compatriots in the team.

The last word I want to focus on today is live wire. This is an interesting compound noun that is used to describe someone who is very energetic. If you have a friend who never stops moving, talking and doing things, you could call them a live wire. I think that a live wire often influences the people around them and inspires them to be more active. This noun comes from wiring as a live wire is a wire that has an electrical current going through it.

OK. That’s 9 words or phrases today. The words and phrases from the stories were: reinforce, resilience, inadvertently, to start with a bang, plain sailing, bizarre, turmoil, compatriot and a live wire.

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

Arsenal and Crystal Palace kick of the new season

It’s a new season, new players, new teams and a new start for Arsenal who had lost their way a bit at the end of last season. The Gunners young squad has been reinforced by two summer signings from Man City. Gabriel Jesus electrified the front line while Oleksandr Zinchenko helped set up the first goal with a clever set-piece that excited fans. Saka appeared to overhit a corner but it was, in fact, timed to perfection for the Ukrainian defender Zinchenko who had made an unchecked run and headed the ball for Gabriel Martinelli who scored after 20 minutes.

Crystal Palace fought back fiercely and it took resilience to hold onto that lead and the game wasn’t really safe until the 85th minute when Marc Guehi inadvertently headed Bukayo Saka’s cross into his own net.

Final score: Crystal Palace 0 - Arsenal 2

Spurs sink Southampton in style

Tottenham’s season started with a bang on Saturday as they welcomed Southampton and delighted their fans with the most exciting scoreline of the weekend.

However, it wasn’t plain sailing from the start. After 12 minutes, the visitors scored. An early strike from James Ward-Prowse shocked the home side, but they soon bounced back with goals from Ryan Sessegnon and Eric Dier.

After the break, the Saints were feeling the pressure as Spurs continued to launch wave after wave of attacks. The result of one produced a bizarre own goal when Mohamed Salisu the Ghanain defender failed to find his feet and powered what was supposed to be a clearance into the corner of the Southampton goal.

Two minutes later, Dejan Kuluveski, who had been playing a great game scored a fourth goal for Spurs sealing a fantastic win at the start of the season.

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 4 - Southampton 1

Aaronson inspires Leeds to victory

When Leeds United survived the relegation turmoil at the end of the last season, Jesse Marsch the American coach knew he needed some fresh talent and found it in compatriot Brenden Aaronson who was the live wire at Elland Road on Saturday against Wolves, setting the pace and intensity for his teammates and finally forcing an own goal which won the match and the first three points of the campaign for Leeds.

Wolves did not have a great match and the performance will have given Bruno Lage something to think about.

Since Marsch’s arrival at Leeds in February, he has struggled to get the team to implement his tactics. However, after a full pre-season and the addition of players that will fit into his 4-2-2-2 system, Leeds are looking a lot more vital and although the manager admits that there is still a lot of work to do, the team is looking like it could be this season’s dark horse.

Final score: Leeds United 2 - Wolverhampton Wanderers 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 words and phrases from this podcast.

Number 1: We hit traffic on the way out of the city, but after that, it was _____ _______ all the way here.

Number 2: When she started her course she was delighted to discover that several of her ___________ had already enrolled.

Number 3: The team has shown remarkable ___________ to keep playing considering the troubles they’ve had.

Number 4: The DJ selected his funkiest record to get the party _______ ____ _ ____!

Number 5: I just met someone on the bus that looks just like me. It was really _______.

Number 6: When the CEO was arrested, the company was in _______ until a new chief was appointed.

Number 7: Your daughter is a pleasure to teach. She’s a real ____ ____ in class and keeps her classmates laughing throughout the lesson.

Number 8: When I updated the website, I ___________ deleted the contact us page.

Number 9: The skyscraper is built from _________ concrete and glass which is how it can be built to such a height.

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’s football phrase is a good one for football fans and I used it in one of today’s stories. The phrase is ***-*****. This means a carefully practised move from a controlled point; so from a free kick or throw in or corner. Some teams practise ***-****** a lot and are very dangerous when they get a free kick or have another opportunity to do something they have practised on the training ground.

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: His manager glanced at his desk as he passed but kept walking without breaking his stride.

Number 2: When I was growing up, sushi was seen as quite a novelty in the UK, but you can find it in lots of restaurants these days.

Number 3: Tottenham Hotspur had the highest home attendance for any match when they played at Wembley when the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was being built.

Number 4: At the end of the play, the audience burst into rapturous applause.

Number 5: Barack Obama made history when he became the first African American president of the United States of America.

Number 6: Liverpool has the most silverware of any English football club.

Number 7: Small changes in global temperatures will have a significant impact on weather conditions.

Number 8: Marcus Rashford’s campaign against food poverty has been an inspiration for many footballers to use their voice and influence.

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.