This Week: In deep water

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 well.

Laura: The Premier League season has just two weeks left but we have plenty 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 the FA Cup semi-finals and the battle to avoid relegation.

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: Captain Blade.

Laura: In the roleplay, Jack and Rich are taken hostage by a football club mascot who is looking for revenge.

Rich: The language focus is on vocabulary connected to places at a football stadium.

Jack: Do you think we’ll escape? You can find the lesson on the homepage on the Premier Skills English website. 

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

Rich: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: to overcome, a blunder, to look over one’s shoulder, to sack, to be in deep water and fixture.

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: Cup final will be a capital affair.

Jack: This season’s FA Cup Final will be between Arsenal and Chelsea as both London teams overcame Manchester opposition to book a return to Wembley. Arsenal shocked City with Pierre_Emirick Aubameyang getting both goals in a 2-0 win. Chelsea beat United 3-1 after two goalkeeping blunders and an own goal gave the Blues a 3-0 lead.

Laura: You must be happy with that Arsenal performance, Jack?

Jack: Yes, very. I think Mikel Arteta is doing a great job and another FA Cup win would be fantastic. 

Rich: Let’s have a look at some vocabulary. The first word we’re going to look at is to overcome.

Laura: Jack said, Arsenal and Chelsea both overcame Manchester opposition.

Jack: To overcome means to successfully deal with or control a problem. A footballer might overcome lots of injuries to achieve success for example.

Rich: Or more generally we can talk about people who overcame lots of problems to achieve things in life.

Laura: Overcome can also be used to describe defeating another team. Arsenal and Chelsea overcame Manchester opposition. They successfully dealt with the teams from Manchester.

Jack: The next word is blunder. We said that Chelsea were helped by two goalkeeping blunders.

Rich: A blunder is a bad mistake or error. On the pitch, it’s usually goalkeeper who make blunders but it can be defenders, too.

Laura: A defensive blunder might be two defenders running into each other allowing a striker to score. 

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

Headline 2

Jack: Hammers almost home and dry.

Laura: West Ham are almost safe after beating Watford 3-1 in a big relegation battle at the bottom of the table. The result leaves Watford looking nervously over their shoulders and the club took action at the weekend when they sacked their manager - Nigel Pearson.

Rich: West Ham are surely safe now. The other teams would have to win all their games and there would have to be a massive swing in goal difference.

Jack: Yes, it’s looking good for the Hammers but Watford are far from safe.

Laura: I said Watford are looking nervously over their shoulders.

Rich: To look over your shoulder is a phrase we use to describe someone who acts nervously because they are afraid about what might happen.

Jack: An escaped criminal might always be looking over their shoulder because they are nervous that they might be arrested by the police.

Laura: The phrase is used because it’s connected to literally looking to see what is behind you. Watford are worried that the teams behind them might catch them and then they will be relegated.

Rich: So, they sacked their manager. A surprise decision with just two matches of the season left.

Jack: THat’s our next word to sack someone. It means to fire someone, to tell someone to leave their job.

Laura: Normally, someone is sacked because they are not very good at their job or they do something wrong.

Rich: A manager is usually sacked or gets the sack after thor team don’t get very many good results.

Jack: Let’s look at our final headline.

Headline 3

Laura: Villa fail to capitalise.

Rich: Aston Villa are in desperate trouble at the foot of the Premier League table following a 1-1 draw at Everton. Ezri Konsa’s goal looked to have given Villa all three points but a late Everton equaliser leaves VIlla in deep water. Villa need at least one win, possibly two, from their last two fixtures to have any chance of survival.

Jack: It’s not looking good for Villa. They need to beat either Arsenal or West Ham to have any chance of surviving in the top flight.

Laura: They could be joining Norwich this weekend and Bournemouth already have one foot in the Championship.

Rich: I said Villa are in deep water. To be in deep water means to be in trouble or to be having lots of difficulties with something.

Jack: Imagine you are in the sea and can’t swim that well - you’re in deep water, you’re in trouble, you have a problem.

Laura: Villa re in deep water and could sink this weekend.

Rich: The phrase is also used when you are in trouble because you have done something wrong. You could be in deep water with the police, in deep water with the school or in deep water with your parents.

Jack: When I was a kid I remember my mum saying you’ll be in deep water if you’re not home by nine o’clock.

Laura: My mum would say hot water. 

Rich: That sounds worse. OK, our last word this week is fixture. We said that Aston Villa need to win at least one of their final two fixtures.

Jack: A fixture is a match that has been officially organised. In the Premier League, each team plays 38 fixtures. 

Laura: And there are 38 rounds of fixtures in a season. The word fixture is usually used in slightly more formal contexts.

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 overcome, a blunder, to look over one’s shoulder, to sack, to be in deep water and fixture.

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

Prediction

Jack: It’s time for our Premier League prediction and I think we need to talk about Rich’s prediction from last week.

Rich: Yes, I know I got the Arsenal match wrong …

Jack: Not just wrong, Rich. Here. I’m going to quote you. This is what you said last week ‘Manchester City will beat Arsenal easily so I’m going to speak about the other semi-final’.

Rich: Yes, anything can happen. I know.

Laura: It wasn’t just that prediction though was it?

Rich: No.

Laura: Here’s what you said about Chelsea and Manchester United before predicting a 3-1 win for United ‘United have been on fire and Chelsea’s form has been more up and down’. 

Rich: Yes, Chelsea won 3-1. Another bad prediction.

Jack: Well, it means that Laura has won our Premier League prediction competition. Have you got a prize?

Rich: Errr .. as a prize I think Laura can make the final prediction of the season.

Laura: I’d love to. I think the biggest match this weekend is Leicester City against Manchester United. The winner will be playing Champions League football next season and the loser will be in the Europa League. I know that you predicted a United win last week Rich and they produced a really bad performance but I don’t think that’ll happen again. Final score: Leicester 1-2 Manchester United.

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

Language Challenge

Rich: 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 look over one’s shoulder. Here are three more idioms that use body parts. Can you complete the missing word in each sentence?

Jack: There’s no way they’re going to buy Messi. He’d cost an arm and a _____.

Rich: I just wish they’d get off his _____. He doesn’t need people telling him exactly what to do all the time.

Laura: Off the top of my ____, I’d say about 50 different clubs have played in the Premier League.

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.