This Week: United on fire

Introduction

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

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

Jack: And I’m Jack and we hope you are all staying well whether you are staying home or going to work.

Laura: The Premier League is back and we’re back with more football English for you to learn.

Rich: We take a look at three headlines about the Premier League action from the past seven days. This week we’re talking about Manchester United’s front three, a surprise for Liverpool and a great result for West Ham.

Jack: Our main reason for choosing these headlines, however, is so we can focus on some useful bits of vocabulary. 

Laura: And 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.

Rich: And a little later we’ll also have a Premier League prediction for you. We want you to make your predictions, too.

Jack: 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.

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

Rich: 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.

Jack: Our latest podcast is called Learning Vocabulary: Lost in America.

Rich: In the roleplay, we’re on holiday in the United States and an American friend takes us to San Francisco to see some fourth of July Independence Day celebrations.

Laura: The language focus is on the differences between American and British English

Jack: Gas station - petrol station, sneakers - trainers - those kinds of things. You can find the lesson on the homepage on the Premier Skills English website. 

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

Laura: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: a trio, a demolition, to rain on someone’s parade, to take your foot off the gas, to stay up and to go down.

Jack: After the headlines, we want you to make a Premier League prediction and we have a language challenge for you to have a go at.

Headline 1

Rich: United gunning for the top four.

Jack: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United are flying and up to fifth after a 5-2 demolition of Bournemouth. United have scored eleven in their last three games and there can’t be a better forward trio than Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford at the moment.

Laura: They are very exciting players. Greenwood is only 18 and already has 8 Premier League goals. Only three other players have ever managed so many goals at such a young age: Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Wayne Rooney.

Rich: And with Rashford only 22 and Martial 24 it looks like United have a great attacking line-up for the future.

Jack: Let’s have a look at some language in that headline. We describe Greenwood, Rashford and Martial as a trio; an attacking or forward trio.

Laura: A trio is a group of three people or things. We use it to talk about music quite a lot. A trio could be a group of three musicians who play music together. 

Rich: In football, we use it to talk about strikers or forwards that play together. A team might have an attacking trio or an attacking duo depending on how many players they use in attack. A trio is three and a duo is two.

Jack: We described Manchester United’s win against Bournemouth as a demolition. The most common meaning of demolition is the deliberate destruction of a building.

Laura: It has a similar meaning because we are saying that Manchester United destroyed Bournemouth. United defeated Bournemouth completely and easily.

Rich: You could also use the phrase demolition job. Manchester United’s 5-2 demolition job on Bournemouth. Let’s look at our second headline.

Headline 2

Jack: City rain on Liverpool’s parade.

Laura: Liverpool arrived at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium as the new Premier League champions but took their foot off the gas as City sounded a warning for next season with a comprehensive 4-0 win. Liverpool may have relaxed a little but City were superb and could have scored even more.

Rich: Yes, a warning for Liverpool. I think City will be better next season and will be much closer to Liverpool.

Jack: Were Liverpool partying before this one, Rich?

Rich: I’m not sure but they definitely didn’t have their normal intensity. Let’s look at a bit of language. We used a couple of nice idioms in this headline.

Laura: The headline included the idiom to rain on someone’s parade. This idiom means to stop someone from enjoying an event or causing someone’s plans to fail.

Jack: A parade is a public celebration in the street that often involves music and people moving down the street. You can imagine that if it rains the event might be cancelled or at least won’t be as fun.

Rich: And that’s what City did - they rained on Liverpool’s parade. Liverpool had been celebrating winning the title, City gave the Liverpool players a guard of honour before the match and then beat them 4-0.

Laura: I don’t think they would have cared too much.

Rich: Not the fans that’s for sure. The second idiom we used was to take your foot off the gas.

Jack: To take your foot off the gas means to relax a little and not play as hard or as well as you can.

Laura: We said Liverpool took their foot off the gas against City. They probably relaxed a little too much and that’s why they lost.

Rich: Teams often take their foot off the gas near the end of games when they are winning easily. I always wonder why a team is winning a match 4-0 at half-time and the match finishes 4-0 or 4-1.

Jack: You think teams take their foot off the gas?

Rich: Yes, usually. I want to see more ten nils!  Let’s take a look at our final headline.

Headline 3

Laura: Hammers claw themselves away from the trapdoor.

Rich: The fight to avoid relegation continues and the big winners last week were West Ham United. The Hammers beat Champions League-chasing Chelsea 3-2 and followed this up with a valuable point away at Newcastle. It looks like the Hammers have enough to stay up but who will go down?

Jack: Great results for West Ham. Not only their results but the teams around them can’t buy a win at the moment?

Laura: That’s a funny phrase can’t buy a win.

Rich: It is used to describe a team that is not playing well and losing a lot. It’s always difficult to win once you get used to losing.

Jack: The phrases we want to look at from this headline are to stay up and to go down. These are the phrases we hear the most connected to relegation.

Laura: To stay up means not to get relegated and to survive in the Premier League.

Rich: To go down means the opposite. It means to be relegated.  A team that goes down will have to play in the Championship next season.

Jack: OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at are: a trio, a demolition, to rain on someone’s parade, to take your foot off the gas, to stay up and to go down.

Laura: Have a listen to the headlines again and see if you understand the vocabulary we’ve looked at. 

Prediction

Rich: It’s time for our Premier League prediction. Laura, you got your prediction wrong last week so your winning run ends at a grand total of one.

Laura: Better than none!

Rich: Very true. Jack, it’s your turn this week you have to get your prediction right this week and next week to have a chance of winning the Premier Skills English Prediction trophy.

Jack: We have a trophy do we?

Rich: Not yet. I’ll make one. So, let’s hear your prediction.

Jack: OK, the match I’m looking forward to most this week is, of course, the North London Derby between Tottenham and Arsenal. A month ago I wouldn’t have been so positive but Arsenal have been playing really well recently and have won their last four matches - three of them away from home. Spurs haven’t been so good and lost to Sheffield United last week. I think Arsenal will win and Aubamayang will score at least two and Saka will get the other. Final score: Tottenham 1-3 Arsenal.

Laura: Very positive Jack. Sounds like overconfidence to me!

Rich: So, that’s Jack’s prediction. What’s yours? Do you agree with him? You can make your prediction for this match and any other Premier League matches on the Premier Skills English website.

Language Challenge

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

Laura: Earlier we used the idiom to rain on someone’s parade. Here are three more idioms using the word rain. Can you complete the missing word in each sentence?

Rich: I’m saving the money for a rainy _____. You never know when I might need it.

Jack: I’m going to take a rain _______ tonight. I’m exhausted. Let’s go out on Saturday instead.

Laura: I’m not going out in that! It’s raining cats and _____.

Rich: 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.

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.

Laura: 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.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.