This Week: Festive Fixtures

This Week: Festive Fixtures

Laura: Hello my name’s Laura and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English. 

Jack: Hi there. I’m Jack. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Rich: My name’s Rich. If you want to listen and read at the same time we have a transcript of this podcast on the Premier Skills English website

Laura: This week we focus on the Premier League matches that were played over the Christmas holiday period in the UK - the festive fixtures.

Rich: First of all, we’d like to say Happy New Year to all our listeners.

Jack: Yes, Happy New Year! We hope all of you have a great 2021.

Laura: All three of us hope you achieve everything you set out to achieve this year including learning lots and lots of English.

Jack: OK, so we’re going to look at three headlines from the action over the holidays and after each, we’ll look at a couple of useful phrases. 

Rich: We want you to use and practise these words and phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Laura: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Jack: You can find all our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Rich: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: festive fixtures, Boxing Day, a run of form, back to back wins, the transfer window and on loan.

Laura: Later on we’ll also have a language challenge for you to have a go at so you need to be ready for that.

Headline 1

Jack: United turn up the heat on Liverpool.

Laura: Manchester United had a successful holiday period as they picked up seven points out of nine to go level on points with Liverpool at the top of the table. An impressive two-all draw with Leicester on Boxing Day was followed up with home wins against Wolves and Aston Villa. 

Rich: A great holiday season for Manchester United - only a month ago United fans were worried where the team were going but they are right back up there at the top all of a sudden.

Jack: Yes, a great holiday period. That’s what Laura said in the headline and then Rich said holiday season. 

Laura: These phrases holiday season and holiday period are used to talk about the period of time in the UK when there are lots of public holidays and festivals at the end of December and the beginning of January.

Rich: Schools are closed and lots of people are off work during this time but not footballers.

Jack: No, the holiday season is actually a very busy time for football. There were three rounds of Premier League matches over the holiday period.

Laura: These are often referred to as festive fixtures. That’s our first phrase this week and what we’ve called this episode.

Rich: A fixture is a planned or scheduled sports match and festive is an adjective used in the UK to describe things that are connected to Christmas.

Jack: So, festive fixtures are the matches that are played during the holiday season or Christmas period.

Laura: The most traditional date for festive football fixtures Is Boxing Day which is the 26th of December. United drew two-all with Leicester on Boxing Day.

Rich: Boxing Day the 26th of December is a public holiday in the UK and there is always a lot of professional sport played on this day.

Jack: Let’s move on to our second headline.

Headline 2

Laura: Arsenal fans get some Christmas cheer.

Rich: Arsenal were the only Premier League team to win all three of their festive fixtures as the Gunners ended their miserable run of form. After seven games without a win, Arsenal bounced back over Christmas with a 3-1 home win against Chelsea followed by back to back away wins against Brighton and West Brom.

Jack: A great return to form for Arsenal. The team gave me something to celebrate at last.

Laura: The Premier League is so close this season. Before Christmas Arsenal were worried about relegation and now they’re just six points off the Champions League places.

Rich: OK, let’s look at some language. We said that Arsenal ended their miserable run of form.

Jack: Miserable is used to describe something that is depressing or uncomfortable or to describe someone who is sad or unhappy. 

Laura: Arsenal’s miserable performances had been making their fans miserable.

Jack: Yes, but that run of form has ended now so I’m much happier.

Rich: Form has lots of meanings but one way we use the word is to describe performance over a period of time. We can say a team or a player is in good form or bad form which means they have been playing well or badly recently.

Laura: A run can describe a series of failures or successes. Someone can have a run of good luck or a team can go on an unbeaten run.

Jack: In the headline, Rich said Arsenal ended their miserable run of form. I’m very happy about this.

Rich: The other phrase we want to look at from this headline is back to back. I said that Arsenal got back to back away wins.

Laura: If we say something is back to back two things happen directly after each other. 

Jack: Arsenal won back to back away matches over the holiday season. They beat Brighton and then they beat West Brom.

Laura: You sound very happy about that. Let’s move on to our final headline.

Headline 3

Rich: Who will be on the move in January?

Laura: The January transfer window is open. Premier League clubs have until February the first to buy and sell in the transfer window. Most clubs will do some business. Some players will move out on loan while some players will make permanent moves.

Jack: It will be interesting to see who moves where in January. I’d like to see Arsenal buy a creative midfielder.

Rich: I think Liverpool need a central defender to cover for injuries.

Laura: Manchester United could get a defender in but I don’t think we’ll see too many done deals in January.

Jack: We want to look at two phrases from our final headline: transfer window and on loan.

Rich: The transfer window is the period of time that clubs are allowed to make transfers. There is one transfer window in the summer and another in January.

Laura: Players can’t move clubs outside of the transfer window.

Jack: The other phrase is on loan. A player is on loan at one club when they are only there temporarily not permanently. One club has loaned a player to another.

Rich: Ross Barkley is on loan at Aston Villa. He is actually a Chelsea player. Dani Ceballos is on loan at Arsenal. He’s actually a Real Madrid player.

Laura: One of our questions for you on the website this week is which players you’d like your club to sign during the transfer window.

Jack: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at were: festive fixtures, Boxing Day, a run of form, back to back wins, the transfer window and on loan.

Rich: Listen to the headlines again to hear these words and phrases in context and don’t forget to look at the website for the transcript if you want to check your understanding of this vocabulary.

Headline 1

Jack: United turn up the heat on Liverpool.

Laura: Manchester United had a successful holiday period as they picked up seven points out of nine to go level on points with Liverpool at the top of the table. An impressive two-all draw with Leicester on Boxing Day was followed up with home wins against Wolves and Aston Villa. 

Headline 2

Laura: Arsenal fans get some Christmas cheer.

Rich: Arsenal were the only Premier League team to win all three of their festive fixtures as the Gunners ended their miserable run of form. After seven games without a win, Arsenal bounced back over Christmas with a 3-1 home win against Chelsea followed by back to back away wins against Brighton and West Brom.

Headline 3

Rich: Who will be on the move in January?

Laura: The January transfer window is open. Premier League clubs have until February the first to buy and sell in the transfer window. Most clubs will do some business. Some players will move out on loan while some players will make permanent moves.

Prediction

Laura: Thanks for all your predictions for the festive fixtures. This weekend sees Premier League teams play in the third round of the FA cup and there are always some interesting matches.

Rich: Yes, I love these types of matches. Premier League teams up against smaller clubs from semi-professional or amateur leagues.

Jack: The match I’m most looking forward to is Marine against Tottenham.

Laura: Marine? Who are they?

Rich: Marine play in the Northern Premier League Division One North West. That is a regional division and is at the eighth level of English football. They usually have about 300 fans watching them when fans are allowed in.

Jack: So, you think they are going to cause a shock and beat Tottenham?

Rich: No, but it will be a great occasion. 

Laura: So, what’s your prediction then?

Rich: I’m not going to make a prediction. What I want our listeners to do this week is to find something out about a team from a lower division. A team that a Premier League team is playing in the FA Cup this weekend.

Jack: Great idea. Tell us what you find out about this club in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Language Challenge

Laura: To finish up the show we’ve got a quick language challenge connected to this week’s vocabulary.

Rich: Earlier we spoke about Boxing Day. We’re going to give you three more sentences which include festival days in the UK. 

Jack: We want you to write the missing days in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Laura: I love ________ Day because I stay in bed until really late after going to a party the night before.

Rich: No, I’m not joking. When I was a kid I used to get a card on _________ Day from every girl in my class.

Jack: I used to love playing tricks and jokes on my parents on _________ Day.

Laura: We want you to write the answers on the Premier Skills English website where we have some more questions and activities connected to this week’s show.

Rich: Or write your answer on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us. Just write the answers in the review section and say hi.

Jack: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this lesson useful and we hope that all of you stay fit and healthy.

Laura: Bye for now and enjoy your football.