This Week: At sixes and sevens

This Week: Sixes and Sevens

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich 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.

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

Rich: Matchweek 4 in the Premier League was spectacular with shock results and a surprise early leader.

Jack: Things couldn’t be going better for the blue half of Liverpool. Everton are top of the Premier League and Women’s Super League.

Laura: We’re going to look at three headlines from this weekend’s action and after each, we’ll look at a couple of useful phrases. 

Jack: We’re going to look at some football English for you to learn and this week we’re going to focus on six 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.

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

Jack: Don’t forget that we also have our weekly Premier Skills English podcast that is released every Friday. Every week we help you with some different vocabulary or an aspect of grammar.

Laura: Our latest podcast is called Learning Vocabulary: Gameshows

Rich: In the podcast, we take part in four popular gameshows.

Jack: We look at language connected to guessing, stalling for time, getting things wrong and lightbulb moments.

Laura: If you want to find out what a lightbulb moment is or write a football trivia question for all our listeners to guess, you can find the podcast on the Premier Skills English homepage now.

Rich: OK, you’re now going to hear our three headlines. After each headline, we’ll have a little discussion and look at some vocabulary. 

Jack: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: to be at sixes and sevens, to go down, on the scoresheet, blunder, get the ball rolling and to get in on the act.

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 and Liverpool at sixes and sevens.

Rich: Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur stunned the football world with two amazing results in Matchweek four. Tottenham won 6-1 at Old Trafford after a dreadful defensive display by United. Bruno Fernandes opened the scoring for United but Spurs hit back with goals from Tanguy Ndombele, Serge Aurier and two each from Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min. At Villa Park, there was an even more stunning result with the Premier League Champions going down 7-2 to Aston Villa. Ollie Watkins scored a hat-trick and Jack Grealish and Ross Barkley were sensational as Liverpool conceded seven goals for the first time since 1963.

Laura: Two amazing results and two of the most unbelievable results in Premier League history.

Jack: I can’t believe anybody saw these results coming.

Laura: I’ve got a fact or two for you. Rich has already said that this is the first time Liverpool have conceded seven since 1963 but it’s also the first time the Champions of England have conceded seven since 1953.

Jack: That’s a long time ago.

Laura: And it’s the first time a visiting team to Old Trafford have scored four times in the first half since 1957.

Jack: That’s a long time ago too. Rich seems to be a bit quiet. 

Rich: It was a freak result and I’m blaming it on all us Liverpool fans laughing at the United result. We’ve only got ourselves to blame.

Laura: Let’s look at some language. In the headline, we described United and Liverpool as being at sixes and sevens.

Jack: To be at sixes and sevens is an idiom which is used to describe being in a difficult, confusing or disorganised situation. Have a listen to this example:

Rich: Not a great performance at the back. Every time they attacked we were at sixes and sevens. We were all over the place.

Laura: The defending for the third goal was awful.

Jack: We were at sixes and sevens. No organisation at all.

Rich: In this example, we're using the idiom to be at sixes and sevens to talk about defending but more specifically bad defending.

Laura: The defence is supposed to be the most organised part of a team so when we use this idiom we are saying the opposite.

Jack: We're describing bad defensive organisation.

Rich: The second bit of language we’re looking at from this headline is the phrasal verb to go down.

Laura: We said that Liverpool went down 7-2 at Aston Villa. To go down has lots of meanings but one of them is to lose.

Jack: Lots of football language is connected to fighting and battles and one meaning of to go down is to sink when a ship is hit during a battle. I think the meaning is similar here.

Rich: Liverpool went down at Aston Villa. They sank under the water and disappeared. They sank without a trace. Let’s move on to our next headline.

Headline 2

Laura: Toffees win again thanks to Colombia’s finest

Jack: Everton continued their 100% winning start to the season with a 4-2 home win against Brighton. James Rodriguez was the star of the show with two goals and his fellow Colombian, Yerry Mina, also scored whilst Dominic Calvert-Lewin was on the scoresheet again. Table-topping Everton were impressive throughout despite Everton keeper Jordan Pickford’s blunder which gifted the visitors a first-half equaliser.

Rich: Everton top of the table. It’s not going to last though. Everton’s next match is the Merseyside Derby.

Jack: I bet you’re not as confident as you were a couple of weeks ago!

Laura: I’ve got another pretty amazing fact here. This is the first time Everton have won their first seven matches in all competitions since 1894.

Rich: 18 94!

Laura: Yep, that’s 126 years ago.

Jack: That’s a pretty amazing fact. Let’s look at some language. The first phrase is to be on the scoresheet.

Rich: We’ve looked at this phrase before but it’s pretty common. Dominic Calvert-Lewin was on the scoresheet again at the weekend.

Laura: I’ve heard this phrase originally comes from journalists who, in the past, wrote down the score of the match and who scored.

Jack: Well, I’ve heard the scoresheet is the official record of players that scored goals and got yellow and red cards in a match.

Rich: In either case, we use the phrase on the scoresheet more generally as an idiom that means to score a goal.

Laura: James Rodriguez got his name on the scoresheet against Brighton. Twice.

Jack: The other word we want to take a look it is blunder. In the headline, I spoke about Jordan Pickford’s blunder that gave Brighton an equaliser.

Rich: A blunder is an informal word for a big mistake or error. 

Laura: We used the word blunder to describe the mistake by Everton’s goalkeeper. 

Jack: Blunder is usually used to describe goalkeeping errors as their mistakes are often more noticeable. 

Rich: The words clanger, howler and gaffe can be used in exactly the same way. To describe a big individual error on the pitch. 

Laura: Let’s move on to our final headline.

Headline 3

Rich: Everton hit Villa for six.

Laura: In the latest round of the Women’s Super League, Everton smashed six past Aston Villa to go joint-top with Arsenal who beat Bristol City 3-1. The Toffees are now top of the table in both the men’s and women’s game. The Australian international, Hayley Raso got the ball rolling with a double before Claire Emslie got in on the act with a double of her own. Everton finished off VIlla with a diving header from Valeri Gauvin and a goal from Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah. 

Jack: Everyone at Everton must be buzzing. Top of both league’s and the women got to the FA Cup Final last week as well.

Rich: Yep, it’s great to see everyone at Everton doing so well.

Laura: You seem to be saying that through gritted teeth, Rich.

Rich: No, not at all.

Jack: But it’s an interesting phrase - an idiom. To say something through gritted teeth. This idiom means you accept or agree with something against your will and it is obvious to others how you really feel.

Laura: Rich is saying that it’s great that Everton are doing well but we all know that because he’s a Liverpool fan he doesn’t really mean it.

Jack: He’s saying it through gritted teeth.

Rich: Let’s look at another couple of idioms from our final headline. We said Hayley Raso got the ball rolling.

Laura: To get the ball rolling is an idiom which means to start things off. To get things started.

Jack: We hear it at meetings. A manager might start a meeting by saying OK I’ll get the ball rolling and then I’m going to ask all of you for some ideas.

Rich: The other idiom is to get in on the act. We said  Claire Emslie got in on the act with a double of her own.

Laura: To get in on the act means to get involved in an activity that has already started.

Jack:  Hayley Raso got the ball rolling and then Claire Emslie got in on the act.

Rich: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at are:  to be at sixes and sevens, to go down, on the scoresheet, blunder, get the ball rolling and to get in on the act.

Prediction

Laura: It’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction. There is an international break this weekend so we have to wait two weeks for Matchweek five but it’s a big one.

Rich: Yes, it’s the Merseyside Derby and I’m predicting a big win for Liverpool.

Jack: Yes, very predictable and that’s why I’m going to do the prediction this week. Matchweek five sees the Premier League leaders, Everton, take on the Premier League Champions, Liverpool, in the 235th Merseyside Derby. Everton have started the season like a train winning every game they’ve played while Liverpool’s loss at Villa was more of a trainwreck. Will Liverpool bounce back? Yes. But will that be against Everton? I’m not so sure and I think Everton’s great start to the season will continue. Final score: Everton 3-2 Liverpool.

Laura: What do you think to that, Rich?

Rich: Everton beat Liverpool. No chance.

Language Challenge

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

Laura: Earlier we looked at the idiom to get the ball rolling. Our language challenge this week includes three more idioms that contain the word ball.

Rich: Write your answers in the comments section and if your answers are correct you will see that we have replaced your answer with asterisks so other listeners can guess too. Here are the three sentences.

Jack: You’ve got to be ______ the ball to get all the answers right.

Laura: If you take your ______ off the ball you might make a blunder.

Rich: I’ve helped as much as I can. The ball’s in his ______ now.

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

Laura: 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.

Rich: 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.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.