This Week: High Hopes

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.

We’ve only got two weeks to wait for the new Premier League season to kick off. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any football stories to talk about. With the Women’s World Cup underway down under and the Premier League’s Summer Series in the states and all the excitement around new signings and transfer rumours, there’s plenty for fans of football and the Premier League. Today I’ve got two stories for you and then some details about how you can join the Premier Skills English mini-league in the Premier League’s Fantasy Football.

But before I get to the 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, the football phrase the ******* **** **** ** *****. This is a really difficult expression and I’m really impressed that so many of you managed to work it out. It means the bad things that someone or a team is experiencing now are because of what they did in the past. So if a team sells their goal keeper and best defenders and then they concede lots of goals you could say that their ******* have **** **** ** *****. I gave you a big clue as well, I said this phrase talks about a farm animal and what it does when it goes to sleep. I wasn’t sure that it was going to help anyone, but Hasan from Turkey said it was a good clue, thanks Hasan.

Congratulations to Hasan from Turkey, Bicooz from Egypt, Alex from Ukraine, Denis2000 from Belarus, Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam, Mobeckham from Turkey, and Ken from Japan. It was a very difficult one this week. Well done Ken and your wife for helping you work out what phrase I was describing.

You all worked out that the phrase I was looking for was chickens come home to roost.

I would also like to congratulate Mobeckham who we’ve not seen for a while because he has been busy getting married. Congratulations Mobeckham!

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

I’m going to use some really interesting phrases in the stories this week. However, these are quite hard so I want to tell you the language to listen out for first. The phrases I want to focus on from the first story this week are:

• To have high hopes for something
• To live up to your potential
• To raise your game
• The deal fell through
• To find your feet

Listen out for these phrases in the first story.

New arrivals fill fans with hope

Jackson and Mudryk were electric in Philadelphia as Chelsea defeated Brighton in the first match of the Premier League Summer Series. Fans had high hopes for the Ukrainian winger when he joined Chelsea in January, but Mudryk joined the Blues at a difficult time and has never really lived up to his potential. Now, under a new manager and with some exciting new teammates, American fans were treated to a glimpse of his potential as he linked up with Jackson to score a blinder.

Nicholas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku look set to raise Chelsea’s game this season. Jackson’s performance against Brighton was incredible. The young Senegalese international almost signed for Bournemouth in January, but the deal fell through because of concern about a hamstring injury. There was no sign of injury or anything else holding him back as he tore up the pitch at the Lincoln Financial Field.

Chelsea has an amazing squad that never really worked out how to play together last season. The summer series is giving the new arrivals the chance to find their feet before they start the new campaign at Stamford Bridge against Liverpool.

Now I’m going to go through the interesting language from the story.

To have high hopes for something

If you have high hopes for something, then you are confident that it will happen or turn out well. I said that Chelsea fans had high hopes for Mudryk when he joined the team in January. Fans were confident that he was going to play well and help the team improve.

To live up to your potential

The noun potential means your ability to succeed or do something. If a person has potential, they show signs that they can be successful. It’s common for parents to tell children that they have lots of potential, meaning they have the ability to become something special. However, potential on its own does not make a person successful. To be successful, you also need to work hard and not be put off by setbacks and failures along the way. If you use your ability and work hard, then you will live up to your potential. To live up to something means to perform in a way that you showed you would, or promised you would. Most commonly, we talk about living up to their potential or sadly not living up to their potential.

To raise your game

To raise your game means to start performing or operating at a higher or more effective level. In football, if a team raises its game, the team starts playing much better. This expression is used in other areas as well. You might raise your game at work, especially if you were not performing very well. If you start making sure you are on time and you meet your deadlines and your performance targets, your manager might say. Well done, you've really raised your game.

The deal fell through

I was going to just talk about the phrasal verb to fall through. However, I think it’s almost always collocated with deals or agreements. So if two people or business are making a deal and then at the last minute, something stops the deal, you can say that the deal fell through. If you are buying a house, it’s a very complicated business and sometimes even after everything has been agreed, something can go wrong and the sale can fall through.

To find your feet

To find your feet means to become settled and confident, usually in a new role or situation. So if you start a new job, at first things will be difficult as you learn how things work. At first you might make mistakes and not be able to perform as well as you’d hope, but after a while, you will find your feet, meaning you are used to the situation and can start to perform well. I tried looking up the origin of the phrase, but apparently there have been versions of this phrase going back through history and it probably has to do with baby animals, like horses and cows that might struggle to walk when they are first born and need a little while to work things out and find their feet.

Listen to the story again to hear the language in context.

New arrivals fill fans with hope

Jackson and Mudryk were electric in Philadelphia as Chelsea defeated Brighton in the first match of the Premier League Summer Series. Fans had high hopes for the Ukrainian winger when he joined Chelsea in January, but Mudryk joined the Blues at a difficult time and has never really lived up to his potential. Now, under a new manager and with some exciting new teammates, American fans were treated to a glimpse of his potential as he linked up with Jackson to score a blinder.

Nicholas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku look set to raise Chelsea’s game this season. Jackson’s performance against Brighton was incredible. The young Senegalese international almost signed for Bournemouth in January, but the deal fell through because of concern about a hamstring injury. There was no sign of injury or anything else holding him back as he tore up the pitch at the Lincoln Financial Field.

Chelsea has an amazing squad that never really worked out how to play together last season. The summer series is giving the new arrivals the chance to find their feet before they start the new campaign at Stamford Bridge against Liverpool.

Now it’s time for the next story. Here are the phrases to listen out for:

• A downward turn
• To be somewhat deflated
• Few and far between

England dominate Denmark

The lionesses overwhelmed their Danish opponents in the Women’s World Cup match in Sydney. Lauren James put England in front when she scored with a beautiful shot from outside the area that swept round the defenders out of reach of the Danish keeper.

Things took a downward turn for England when Keira Walsh landed badly and waved for the referee. With none of the dramatics you’d expect from the men’s game, the influential midfielder calmly informed the medical staff that she’d done her knee and was stretchered off.

The English side looked somewhat deflated following her departure and were lucky when Madsen failed to take advantage of a great ball, pushing it wide. Shortly before the full time whistle, the leaders were saved from a draw by the width of the goal post when a dangerous looking Sorenson header bounced harmlessly away from the goal.

Denmark looked dangerous at times, but these were few and far between. When the final whistle was blown, England had enjoyed 74% possession and deserved the points.

I used three useful or at least interesting phrases in this story. I’ll talk about them now.

A downward turn

Downward or downwards means in a direction from a higher place to a lower place. Normally, we talk about going forwards and backwards. If you’re talking about a trend, a line on a graph, you can say that the trend can move downwards meaning going lower. This movement could be described as a downward turn. Something I only noticed recently is in the UK, we say forwards, backwards and downwards with the letter s at the end, but in American English, people normally say forward and backward without the s. I only noticed this when reading bedtime stories to my kids. However, in the phrase a downward turn, it sounds strange to me to add the s. A downward turn describes a movement or trend that changes direction and goes downwards.

To be somewhat deflated

Somewhat is a formal adjective that means to some degree, or more commonly, a bit or small amount. Because it’s quite formal, it sounds slightly strained and like a deliberate understatement. I said that the English side looked somewhat deflated. The verb to inflate means to blow air into something. The root of the word blow and the verb inflate are the same. You inflate a balloon or inflate a car tyre or a football. To deflate means to let the air out of something. Obviously the English team didn’t have air in them. When I said they looked deflated, I mean they looked less confident; less positive in their movements. I wasn’t using the adjective somewhat in an understated way. I meant that the team looked a bit less confident.

Few and far between

If some things are few and far between, there aren’t many of them and they aren’t found that frequently. Few means a small number and far between means distributed over a large area with long distances between objects. However, in most cases, when people say that examples of something are few and far between, they often just mean they are rare. So you might hear someone say well paid jobs outside big cities are few and far between, meaning there aren’t many well paid job opportunities outside big cities.

Listen to the story again to hear the language in context.

England dominate Denmark

The lionesses overwhelmed their Danish opponents in the Women’s World Cup match in Sydney. Lauren James put England in front when she scored with a beautiful shot from outside the area that swept round the defenders out of reach of the Danish keeper.

Things took a downward turn for England when Keira Walsh landed badly and waved for the referee. With none of the dramatics you’d expect from the men’s game, the influential midfielder calmly informed the medical staff that she’d done her knee and was stretchered off.

The English side looked somewhat deflated following her departure and were lucky when Madsen failed to take advantage of a great ball, pushing it wide. Shortly before the full time whistle, the leaders were saved from a draw by the width of the goal post when a dangerous looking Sorenson header bounced harmlessly away from the goal.

Denmark looked dangerous at times, but these were few and far between. When the final whistle was blown, England had enjoyed 74% possession and deserved the points.

Fantasy Football - Join the Premier Skills English Mini League

Now is the time to pick your team and join the league if you want to join in the fantasy football fun in the Premier League’s fantasy football competition. Select your players carefully before the first match so you can start winning points and competing against fans from all around the world.

I will admit that I am terrible at fantasy football because I always pick players I like over players I think will score well and lose motivation once I’m near the bottom of the table. But this season it will be different and I’m confident that my selection will be victorious.

You can join the Premier Skills English mini-league by signing up on the Premier League’s website and then after you have picked your team, click on the leagues and cups and then the join a league button. When it asks you for a code, enter s e 1 y 5 g

Good luck.

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about the language again. I have spoken about eight useful phrases which are:

• To have high hopes for something
• To live up to your potential
• To raise your game
• The deal fell through
• To find your feet
• A downward turn
• To be somewhat deflated
• Few and far between

I have found examples of these phrases in news stories online and edited them slightly and have removed today’s vocabulary so I want you to fill in the gaps with the phrases from the podcast.

Number 1. Ilkay Gundogan explains how Raheem Sterling ________________ to a world-class level for Manchester City.

Number 2. The horse had a couple of good runs over fences but didn't ___________________ over hurdles.

Number 3. The Love Island star has admitted she was left stressed about paying her bills when her deal with Forever Unique ____________.

Number 4. At Wimbledon, Mirra Andreeva seems to have _____________ on grass, having struggled in her first grass-court match in the previous round.

Number 5. Roberto De Zerbi has ______________ Yasin Ayari at Brighton.

Number 6. The Australian auto market took a _______________ in April as global supply chain issues continue to affect vehicle delivery imports across the board.

Number 7. Barbie reviews: After the incredible reviews and all the hype, our reporters left the cinema feeling a bit __________.

Number 8. While women’s soccer is growing in popularity in the U.K., opportunities for women in the men’s game remain ________________.

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 phrase is in the sports news a lot at the moment because it means two organisations, usually businesses are discussing some sort of deal. I think that we normally use this phrase when the discussions have just started. So in the news today, I read that Liverpool are ** ***** **** PSG about a loan deal for Kylian Mbappe.

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. Australia captain Alyssa Healy says her side showed 'grit and determination' to grind out the victory which ensured they retain the Ashes.

Number 2. Tina Turner's 'What's Love Got To Do With It' has reached number one on the charts following her death.

Number 3. West Ham are in with a good chance of signing Edson Alvarez despite Bayern Munich being interested in the midfielder.

Number 4. In the Fifa Women’s World Cup, New Zealand’s victory over Norway has been described as an upset for the ages.

Number 5. You can currently save over £100 on this mitre saw in the power tools sale on the website.

Number 6. Rashford told the club website: “I can assure you that I will give everything to help the team reach the level we are capable of.”

Number 7. The young rider has started his campaign well having made some big lifestyle changes. The Italian said: "I’ve sacrificed a lot; no more parties, no more staying out late, in bed at 10, every night.”

Number 8. In the FIFA Women's World Cup: Canada and Nigeria ended in a draw after Christine Sinclair’s penalty was saved.

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.