This Week: A Standout Performance

This Week: A standout performance

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 Chelsea women’s stunning victory in the League Cup Final, the North London Derby and wins for the top three in the Premier League.

Jack: We’re going to look at three headlines from the weekend’s action and look at some words and phrases connected to those headlines. 

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: to retain, standout, to bring someone back down to earth, to turn something around, to be on track and to see off. 

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: Chelsea win the first trophy of the season.

Laura: Chelsea brushed aside Bristol City’s challenge to retain the Women’s League Cup with a 6-0 win in the final. It was a sensational display but there were two standout performances by Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby. Kerr scored a hat-trick and Kirby was involved in all six goals - she scored twice and got four assists.

Rich: Chelsea are looking so good at the moment - they are top of the league, have just won the league cup and are into the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Jack: Chelsea are aiming for a clean sweep of all the trophies this season.

Laura: A clean sweep - that’s a nice phrase. A clean sweep means to win all the trophies or prizes that are available. 

Rich: You often hear it at the Olympics. China made a clean sweep of the medals in the gymnastics or that’s a French clean sweep in the cycling.

Jack: It means they finished in the top three places and won the gold, silver and bronze medals. They won all the medals available.

Laura: Let’s look at some language from the headline. We said that Chelsea retained the League Cup.

Rich: To retain something means to continue to have or to keep something. 

Jack: Chelsea won the League Cup last season and they have won it again this season - they have retained the cup.

Laura: Another phrase I want to look at is standout. In the headline, we used standout as an adjective when we said there were two standout performances.

Rich: It describes something that is easy to notice because it’s much better than everything else around it. There were standout performances by Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby.

Jack: We might use this word more generally like in these examples about music and acting. The standout track on the album is … or it was a standout performance and that’s why she won the Oscar.

Laura: Stand out is also a phrasal verb and has the same meaning. We can say that Sam Kerr’s performance stood out or this is the track on the album that stood out for me.

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

Headline 2 

Laura: Lamela brought back down to earth in North London Derby.

Rich: Erik Lamela scored one of the Premier League’s best-ever goals when he scored with a ‘rabona’ shot that put Spurs in the lead but it was Arsenal who finished the happier as they came from behind to win the North London Derby. Martin Odegaard and Alexandre Lacazette turned the match around for the Gunners and Lamela’s day didn’t end happily as he was sent off with fifteen minutes left to play.

Jack: OK, a great win for Arsenal but let’s start with that goal. Was it the best-ever in the Premier League?

Laura: It was pretty special, wasn’t it? And it included a nutmeg and it was against their fiercest rival as well.

Rich: I think it’s the first rabona I’ve ever seen in the Premier League but I do know that Lamela has done it before for Spurs. You can find that one online and let us know if you think it was the best goal the Premier League has seen.

Jack: Let’s look at some language. In the headline, we said that Lamela was brought back down to earth.

Laura: To bring someone back down to earth is an idiom that means to bring someone back to reality after they’ve been very excited about something.

Rich: Lamela must have been over the moon when he scored that goal but the referee brought him back down to earth when he showed him a red card.

Jack: We said that Arsenal turned the match around. To turn something around can literally mean to move the position of something, ‘can you turn that table around?’, but it can also mean to make something successful that has been unsuccessful for some time.

Laura: Arsenal were losing but they turned the match around to win the North London Derby.

Rich: It’s a phrase that is also common to talk about business. A new manager may be hired to turn around a failing business and make it profitable again.

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

Headline 3

Rich: Top three break away from the pack.

Jack: There were important wins for Manchester City who won 3-0 at Fulham to keep their title charge on track, Leicester City who beat Sheffield United 5-0 with a Kelechi Ihenancho hat-trick and Manchester United who needed an own goal to see off West Ham. There is now a five-point cushion between Leicester in third and Chelsea in fourth.

Laura: Yes, City keep going with another win and Leicester and Manchester United are starting to look good for Champions League spots. 

Rich: Yes, all three are definitely on track for that. 

Jack: That’s our first phrase from this headline - to be on track. To be on track means to be doing the right thing in order to achieve the result you want.

Laura: Manchester City are on track to win the league. They are doing the right thing which is winning games to achieve the result they want which is to win the Premier League title.

Rich: Our final phrase this week is to see off. We said that Manchester United needed an own goal to see off West Ham.

Jack: In this football context to see off basically means to beat someone. West Ham challenged Manchester United but United saw off the challenge by winning the game.

Laura: We can also use this phrase when we say goodbye to someone - usually because they are going travelling. I could say something like: I went to see off my sister at the airport.

Rich: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and lots of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at were: to retain, standout, to bring someone back down to earth, to turn something around, to be on track and to see off. 

Jack: 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.

Headlines - Repeat
Prediction

Jack: It’s time for our prediction and I’m very happy to say that it was me who got the prediction right last week. I always thought Arsenal would beat Tottenham and they did.

Laura: That means we want you to choose the match for this week’s prediction and start us off.

Jack: OK, so the match I’m going to watch this weekend is in the FA Cup. It’s the quarter-finals and the match of the round has to be Leicester City against Manchester United. Both teams are on track to finish in a good position in the Premier League but would love the chance to add a trophy to the cabinet. I’m going to go for Leicester because they have home advantage. Final score: Leicester City 2-1 Manchester United.

Laura: I’m going for United. 2-0.

Rich: Remember there can be extra-time and penalties in the cup so I’m going for a United win in a penalty shootout.

Jack: What do you think the score will be? Do you agree with me, Rich or Laura?

Rich: We want all of you to make your predictions for this match and the rest of the FA Cup quarter-finals which you can find 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 the idiom to be on track. We said that Manchester City are on track to win the Premier League this season.

Jack We’re going to give you three more sentences which include idioms with the word track. Do you know the missing words?

Laura: Manchester City are ______ on track after their defeat in the derby last week.

Rich: She’s so good in the under 21s! I think we should _____ track her to the first team now.

Jack: I want to go somewhere different on holiday this year. Somewhere ____  the beaten track.

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.

Jack: 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 all of you stay fit and healthy.

Laura: Bye for now and enjoy your football.