This Week: Biggest defeat of the 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 premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org 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.

Now, I’ve been feeling a little under the weather this week so I’m sorry if my voice is not as clear and enthusiastic as normal. I am feeling better already, and my voice is coming back... slowly.

In today’s podcast, I am going to talk about Newcastle’s trip to Sheffield where the home side suffered the biggest defeat of the season.

The phrases I am going to talk about are:

• The writing is on the wall
• Ruthless, relentless and ravenous
• Completely thrashed
• A Humiliating loss
• To salvage something
• To put a positive spin on something
• To get back on track
• A decisive victory

Listen out for this vocabulary in the story.

After the story there will be a short language focus and then there will be a language challenge 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 football phrase **********. In the story, I used the verb form and the noun form. This is what happens to a club if they finish the season in the last three places in the league and this is what Chelsea dodged 104 years ago and what caused the rivalry between Arsenal and Spurs to escalate.

Congratulations to Eshaan Shabeer from India, Loic from France, Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam, Alex from Ukraine, AndreTorre102 from Brazil, Vinicius77 from Brazil, Ken from Japan, Isshin from Japan, Hassan from Turkey, Ali Abedini from Iran, Ferdhi Nuryana from Indonesia, Denis2000 from Belarus, El Chuecho from Argentina, Hassan Ahmadpour from Iran and Sisman74 from Turkey.

You all managed to work out the phrase I was looking for, which was to be relegated or relegation.

Keep listening till the end of the podcast for a new football phrase.

Now it’s time for the story.

Biggest defeat of the season

On Sunday, Newcastle United made history when they travelled to Sheffield and absolutely humiliated the Blades when they delivered one of the biggest defeats in the history of the Premier League. The writing was on the wall when Sven Botman scored in the 35th minute putting the Magpies 3 goals ahead. And then in the second half, the visitors were ruthless, relentless and ravenous as they demolished the Sheffield side with goal after goal after goal; finally racking up 8 and making history as they did it. This was the first time there have been 8 different goal scorers in a Premier League match.

Manchester United did one better in 2009, beating Ipswich town 9-0, but they were at home. Newcastle United beat another Sheffield team, Sheffield Wednesday, 8-0, but that was back in 1999, and they were at St James’ Park and they had the legendary Alan Shearer who scored five.

Sunday’s result was away. Newcastle United completely thrashed Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. This was a humiliating loss.

I’m sure that Paul Heckingbottom will try to salvage something from the experience, perhaps see it as a learning opportunity. Managers often try to put a positive spin on a defeat, talking about the lessons they learned and how this is an opportunity to improve, about how they can get back on track. But no matter how you try to spin this one, it was a bad day at the office for the Sheffield manager.

Newcastle demonstrated that they have a team of goal scorers, that throughout the squad, there are players who have the confidence to take chances when they come up. This decisive victory will raise the spirits of Newcastle United and the Toon Army ahead of their match against Burnley tomorrow while Sheffield have to find the will to keep pushing as they travel to the London Stadium to face West Ham.

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

• The writing is on the wall
• Ruthless, relentless and ravenous
• Completely thrashed
• A Humiliating loss
• To salvage something
• To put a positive spin on something
• To get back on track
• A decisive victory

The writing is on the wall
This idiom means that something is doomed, that something is going to fail. The origin of the phrase is a bible story from the book of Daniel about the king of Babylon who was having a wild party and being generally naughty and disrespectful until a mysterious hand appeared and started writing on the wall. He couldn’t read the writing so he summoned Daniel who interpreted it for him and told him that God had judgend him and decided that he’d been king for long enough and then later that night, he was killed. So people use the phrase the writing;’s on the wall if something is like the king of Babylon and it’s finished or can’t continue.

Ruthless, relentless and ravenous
The word ruthless means without feeling or pity. It’s often collocated with the word killer. A ruthless killer is someone who kills without any sadness or remorse. They have no feelings of pity for their victims. There is no positive form of this adjective anymore. I think that people used to be full of ruth and perhaps the verb to rue which means to regret is related.
Relentless means without stopping. The online Cambridge dictionary definition says continuing in a harsh way. So we use the adjective relentless to describe something negative that doesn’t stop. So you might read about a relentless series of attacks. In the winter in the UK, sometimes the rain and wind can feel pretty relentless.
Ravenous means extremely hungry. It comes from the verb to ravage which means to cause great damage to something. Most of the time, we use it just to mean very very hungry.

Completely thrashed
The verb to thrash means to beat someone or an animal as a punishment. It’s an old word and comes from the verb to thresh which means to beat grain from the stem. So when farmers harvest wheat, they used to beat the wheat to separate the grain from the rest of the plant. Most of the time now, the verb means to defeat an opponent easily, with a convincing scoreline. I think in football, a three goal difference, 3-0 or 4-1, for example or greater could be called a thrashing.

A humiliating loss
If something is humiliating, it makes you feel ashamed or embarrassed. I don’t think there’s anything to be ashamed of if you make a mistake. I mean, making mistakes is an important part of learning. But if you’re an English teacher and you make a grammar mistake on a web page, that’s a little humiliating. So if you make a mistake at something that you should be good at, at something that you’re a professional doing, that’s humiliating.

To salvage something
The verb to salvage means to save from destruction. It’s normally used to talk about valuable cargo on a boat. If the boat sinks, a team might be sent to salvage the cargo. We also use it if there’s a fire or a building collapses, perhaps after an earthquake. Anything that you can take from the wrecked building that you can still use, is salvaged. So anything that is saved from a disaster is salvaged.

To put a positive spin on something
If you put a positive spin on something, you find a way to describe it that makes it seem better than it really is. You might also hear that someone has a different spin or a different way of describing a situation. Politicians sometimes use spin doctors who are not doctors at all, they are professional political strategists and communications specialists who find the best way to describe problems and policies to support a particular political party.

To get back on track
If you are on track for something, you are working in a way that should result in that thing. I think that this comes from a railway track. If a train is on a track for a particular destination, then if the train keeps going, it will reach that destination. So if you’re on track for a promotion, you should get a promotion if you keep doing what you’re doing. If you start performing badly, then you might be encouraged to get back on track. This just means to get back to performing properly.

A decisive victory
If something is decisive, it has a big role in the way a situation will progress or end. So a victory is decisive if it affects a team’s progress in the league. Often, we don’t recognise decisive moments until later. You might look back at a team’s campaign and recognise which moment changed the team’s fortunes, which moment was decisive. However, we do often use the adjective decisive to describe a victory if the match finishes with a very clear winning scoreline. I think a margin of two goals or more is probably enough to describe a result as decisive.

Today, I’ve spoken about 8 useful phrases. The phrases I have spoken about are:

• The writing is on the wall
• Ruthless, relentless and ravenous
• Completely thrashed
• A Humiliating loss
• To salvage something
• To put a positive spin on something
• To get back on track
• A decisive victory

Listen to the story one more time to hear the phrases in context.

Biggest defeat of the season

On Sunday, Newcastle United made history when they travelled to Sheffield and absolutely humiliated the Blades when they delivered one of the biggest defeats in the history of the Premier League. The writing was on the wall when Sven Botman scored in the 35th minute putting the Magpies 3 goals ahead. And then in the second half, the visitors were ruthless, relentless and ravenous as they demolished the Sheffield side with goal after goal after goal; finally racking up 8 and making history as they did it. This was the first time there have been 8 different goal scorers in a Premier League match.

Manchester United did one better in 2009, beating Ipswich town 9-0, but they were at home. Newcastle United beat another Sheffield team, Sheffield Wednesday, 8-0, but that was back in 1999, and they were at St James’ Park and they had the legendary Alan Shearer who scored five.

Sunday’s result was away. Newcastle United completely thrashed Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. This was a humiliating loss.

I’m sure that Paul Heckingbottom will try to salvage something from the experience, perhaps see it as a learning opportunity. Managers often try to put a positive spin on a defeat, talking about the lessons they learned and how this is an opportunity to improve, about how they can get back on track. But no matter how you try to spin this one, it was a bad day at the office for the Sheffield manager.

Newcastle demonstrated that they have a team of goal scorers, that throughout the squad, there are players who have the confidence to take chances when they come up. This decisive victory will raise the spirits of Newcastle United and the Toon Army ahead of their match against Burnley tomorrow while Sheffield have to find the will to keep pushing as they travel to the London Stadium to face West Ham.

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about the language again. I have found examples of the words and phrases in news stories online and edited them slightly. I have removed today’s vocabulary so I want you to fill in the gaps with the language from the podcast.

Number 1. A late header from Mumbai City’s Jorge Diaz's helped his side ___________ a point against Odisha FC.

Number 2. The CEO of the housewares company Wilko admitted that the ‘________________’ as the high-street chain put 12,000 jobs at risk.

Number 3. Trump criticised the 'Fake News' for refusing to _______________ on the US coronavirus response, which left over 120,000 dead.

Number 4. Captured in January after three decades on the run, ________ Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, has died in hospital in central Italy.

Number 5. Wrexham were _________ 5-0 by Stockport as their unbeaten run ended.

Number 6. Kelly’s Castledaly side powered clear of Ballymore to claim a __________ victory.

Number 7. Greggs bosses made a __________ mistake as they spruced up their Greggs store in Richmond, Yorkshire — and then decorated it with photos of Richmond, London.

Number 8. World leaders aim to _____________ in the global fight against tuberculosis.

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

Football phrase

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

This week’s football phrase is * *** *** ** *** ******. This is a funny football cliche that the commentators used to talk about Sheffield United’s performance from the perspective of the manager. You can use this phrase to say that a performance reflects badly on a manager. I have read that it can be used to talk about a poor performance in sports for players and managers, but I think it’s more commonly used to talk about a manager’s performance.

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. Liverpool fans will love Mac Allister and Szoboszlai’s online banter over shirt printing numbers

Number 2. From Rocky Balboa to Batman, watch your favourite characters got whipped into shape in the 25 best training montages in movie history

Number 3. The Eagles scraped a win against Championship side Stoke City with a scrappy victory.

Number 4. The Australian steered in from a beautifully-crafted set-piece after the hosts had to weather a first-half storm of pressure from Graham Alexander's men.

Number 5. Andy Murray believes Novak Djokovic created a psychological advantage for him by winning matches in which he was facing match points.

Number 6. Three wins from the last four games sees Cobblers only outside the top three places on goal difference from Carlisle United.

Number 7. It’s time to take a trip down memory lane and reflect on how Brighton and Palace’s rivalry escalated.

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.