This Week - Twelve days of festive football

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.

Today, I’m talking about Arsenal’s match against Crystal Palace, Manchester City’s trip to Aston Villa and league leaders Liverpool who went to Totteham Hotspur. And as it’s Christmas eve, I have a very special Christmas treat for you from my son.

I’m going to talk about a lot of words and phrases today. The words and phrases I am going to talk about are:

• To wear your heart on your sleeve
• An air of confidence
• Well placed confidence
• To put the game to bed
• To draw someone out
• Impeccable timing
• To scrape a goal back
• Too little too late
• To run riot
• To nip
• To snuff out hope
• Humiliation

Listen out for this vocabulary in the story.

In the last podcast, the football phrases were far too difficult. So rather than confusing you again now, I will simply tell you that the answers were yo-yo form which describes a club that plays well, then badly then well then badly and so on and that the answer to the fiendish football phrase was new-manager bounce, which is when a team that has been playing badly suddenly plays well when they get a new manager.

This week, I have something a bit different for you. I have rewritten a famous christmas song, the 12 Days of Christmas which is about an extravagant series of presents that someone receives from their true love. Now, I’ve changed the gifts so it’s all about football and I want you to try to fill in the gaps in the song lyrics with the football language. And I’ve got my son to sing it for you.

But that’s for after the stories and this week’s football vocabulary so now it’s time for the first story from the Premier League.

Jesus delivers some Christmas joy

As an Arsenal fan, watching Gabriel Jesus this season has been painful. Nobody would ever find fault with the Brazilian striker’s commitment and passion for the match. He wears his heart on his sleeve and every near miss and blocked shot clearly pains him and the fans suffer with him. So when he scored three in the Carabao cup against Palace, he looked so happy and the fans shared in his joy.

On Saturday, when he took to the pitch to face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, there was an air of confidence about him and that belief quickly turned out to be well placed when he took control of the match early on scoring twice in the first fifteen minutes.

Palace did initially equalise after Jesus’s first with a beautiful accurate strike from Ismaila Sarr and later in the match, they were dangerous in attack. David Raya in goal for the Gunners made a few world-class saves that must have frustrated the home side.

Jesus’s early optimism lifted the team. His first two goals gave his side an advantage and when he hit the post and the ball rebounded, Kai Havertz was on hand to put it away.

In the second half, goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice put the game to bed.

Final score: Crystal Palace 1 - 5 Arsenal

The phrases I am going to talk about today are:

• To wear your heart on your sleeve
• An air of confidence
• Well placed confidence
• To put the game to bed

To wear your heart on your sleeve
If you wear your heart on your sleeve, you are open with your emotions and everyone can tell how you are feeling from the way you act. Some people try to hide their emotions and think it’s better to try to remain cool and calm. But some people are just too expressive and can’t help smiling when they are happy and frowning when they are sad. I did read that this expression implies that someone is vulnerable, that they are somehow not as strong as those that can hide their emotions, but I’m not sure I agree. I think it’s a good thing to be open and honest about how you are feeling.

An air of confidence
If someone or a team has an air of confidence, they appear confident. They have a confident attitude and seem like they know what they are doing. I’m not sure why we say that someone has an air of confidence, it’s like they smell confident. I think that an air of something means that you can’t tell exactly what it is about their behaviour that makes you think they feel confident. But they give an overall impression of confidence. We use the phrase an air of with other moods or features that you can’t determine exactly. So a person might have an air of superiority if they seem to think they are better than you or an air of authority if they seem to be in control or an air of sadness, if they seem sad, even if they are not crying; sometimes people can be smiling but still have an air of sadness about them.

Well placed confidence
I said that Gabriel Jesus had an air of confidence about him and then later I said that it was well placed. If someone is confident about their ability to do something and then they do it well, you can say that their confidence was well placed. Jesus’s confidence was well placed as he scored twice.

To put the game to bed
This is a fun expression that means to end something, usually something that has taken a while to complete. The only other thing that you might put to bed are your children. If you have young children then you know that there is something satisfying after a long and busy day when you put the children to bed, you can relax and enjoy some peace and quiet.
In football, it means to score a goal that makes the result definitive. When Arsenal were three ahead, Palace stood little chance of a comeback. But when Rice scored at the end of the match, there was nothing that Palace could do so the match was effectively finished. The result was no longer in question and the Arsenal players could relax.
Time to move on to the second story.

City fails to find form at Villa

Manchester City took the trip down to Birmingham to take on Aston Villa. Now, we all know that City have been struggling, but I still can’t quite get my head around their recent form. In the opening minute, Gvardiol made what I would have described as an uncharacteristic mistake and gifted the ball to Jhon Duran who was suddenly on-on-one with the keeper. He took the shot a bit early and Stefan Ortega was able to push the ball away, but it was clear that Villa were feeling confident.

Fifteen minutes later, Martinez played the ball to Youri Tielemans who played a beautiful through ball for Morgan Rogers who timed his run perfectly to break through City’s back line. He held the bell for long enough to draw Martinez out before crossing to Duran who struck well, giving Villa the lead.

In the second half, Villa doubled their lead with a well worked team goal. John McGinn was on the ball with support on both sides, pulling the City defence apart. With impeccable timing, he crossed to Morgan Rogers who slotted the ball into the right hand side, past the outstretched glove of Ortega.

Phil Foden managed to scrape a goal back in stoppage time, despite most of his teammates having already accepted the loss. Savinio took the ball down the right side of the pitch, somehow holding on while surrounded by 4 villa players. He crossed the ball for Foden who clawed his way past Pau Torres and then Lucas Digne before thumping it into the net. He ran to collect the ball, desperate to get the game going again, but it was too little too late.

Final score: Aston Villa 2 - Manchester City 1

The phrases I am going to talk about today are:

• To draw someone out
• Impeccable timing
• To scrape a goal back
• Too little too late

To draw someone out
This is an easy expression to understand. It means to cause someone to come out of their hiding place or come out of their safe place. The word draw is similar to the word pull, but we use it to describe things that pull on your emotions or feelings. In football, when an attacker gets close to the goalkeeper, the goalkeeper will come off his line to try to reduce the attacker’s shooting options. If however, the attacker has support, they might not have any intention of shooting and might just want to draw the keeper off his line so when they cross to a teammate, the keeper is out of position.

Impeccable timing
I like the word impeccable and I don’t think I’ve ever described it before. It means faultless or without any error or problem. I think it’s most commonly used with the word credentials. Credentials are references and referrals that a person might present when applying for a job or that a company might share when they are bidding on a contract. If someone has really good references without any hint of a problem, then you can say that they have impeccable credentials.

Actually, I just checked and impeccable taste and impeccable manners are both far more common when I compare google search results. If you have impeccable taste, you have really good taste. This is really hard to explain ... good taste means you have a well refined sense of what is pleasing and culturally appropriate. What this means will be different from culture to culture, but it normally means you like things that are good quality and that are more sophisticated. If you have impeccable taste and people come to your house, they will say things like, that’s lovely, and what a beautiful picture, and I love your ... wall paper.

The collocation impeccable timing is not as strong, but it’s a good collocation and just means perfect timing.

To scrape a goal back
To scrape something means to achieve something, but with difficulty and not in a confident way. Most commonly, I think people scrape a pass in an exam. If the pass mark is 60% and you score 60% or 61% then you pass, but only just. You have scraped a pass. When Foden scraped a goal back at the end of the match, it wasn’t a confident strike and City hadn’t looked like they were going to score so he just managed to scrape the goal.

Too little too late
If something is too little too late, then it’s something positive that does support a cause, but it’s not enough for that cause to be successful. In one dictionary I read, it means to supply something that should have been supplied earlier. So after a disaster, you might read about aid arriving but the people suffering describe the aid as too little too late, meaning they should have received more aid sooner.
The phrase is used in quite a lot of romantic films when one of the romantic leads tries to win back the love of their partner with some sort of gesture only to be told that their efforts are too little too late and that they have not been successful.

Now it’s time for the final story for today.

Liverpool run riot at Tottenham

Spurs looked slow to start on Sunday while Liverpool looked like they were playing in a higher gear. When Alexander Arnold crossed the ball in, the Spurs defence were half a second slower to react leaving Lucas Diaz with an easy header to put Liverpool in front.

Mac Allister doubled Liverpool’s lead after finding himself in the right place at the right time. Szoboszlai got to the cross, but clashed with Spence and Gray and the ball just popped up, setting up Mac Allister to head the ball into the net.

James Maddison scored for Spurs in the 41st minute with a slightly cheeky effort. Kulusevski had just clattered into Mac Allister and while they were both on the ground Maddison nipped around them, collecting the ball and then fired the ball into the net.

Minutes later, Liverpool snuffed out Tottenham’s half-time hope with a well crafted counter attacking goal. Again, Spurs were just too slow to react and Salah was charging towards the goal with three red shirts in support. He opted for Szoboszlai who made it 3.

In the second half, things didn’t get any better for Spurs. Liverpool kept pushing hard and there were just too many attackers for Spurs to deal with so that when Gray tried to keep the ball out by blocking Szoboszlai’s shot he was simply setting it up for Salah.

Salah got his second just after 60 minutes. Gakpo poked the ball through for Szoboszlai who ran straight through Spurs’ defence. With the keeper and Spence closing in on Szoboszlai, all it took was a tap square for Salah to score.

Dejan Kulusevski looked determined to salvage something from the match and scored with a fantastic finish. He took the initiative, running the ball in before passing to Solanke who held the ball for a touch before crossing it back for Kulusevski who hit home with a confident volley.

Solanke reduced the deficit again with an athletic stretch to push the ball past Alisson. With 8 minutes of normal time to play Spurs were suddenly electrified, daring to dream that they might escape humiliation.

That dream was over just two minutes later when Luis Diaz struck the ball well following a lovely assist from Salah, making this the highest scoring game in the Premier League so far this season.

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 3 - 6 Liverpool

The words and phrases I am going to talk about today are:

• To run riot
• To nip
• To snuff out hope
• Humiliation

To run riot
To run riot means to behave in a way that is wild and out of control. I think it’s most commonly used to describe children, particularly school children, when their teacher is away if they start running around, climbing on things, play fighting, scattering pens and pencils and papers. You might hear someone say, the children ran riot when their teacher left the room.
In football English, it means that one team is able to score lots of goals against their opponents, that their opponents are not able to control them. I said that Liverpool ran riot at Spurs because Liverpool were almost completely free to score. It’s a bit figurative in Premier League football because Spurs are still a Premier League side full of world class players so it’s not like they had no control, but you get the idea.

To nip
The verb to nip means to move somewhere quickly. In regular English, people say they nip to the shops meaning they make a quick visit to buy something; not a long trip to the supermarket, but a short visit to buy one or two things. You can also use the word to describe a quick and agile movement. So when Maddison spotted the ball running free from Kulusevski and Mac Allister, he very quickly moved around them to collect the ball. He nipped around his teammate to get to the ball in time to shoot.

To snuff out hope
The phrase to snuff something out originally comes from candles, I think. The first time I came across a candle snuffer was when I was a child and went to church. At the end of the service, one of the altar boys, the priest’s helpers, would go around with a long stick with a little brass cone on the end that he could use to put out the candles by lowering the cone over the candle. This would snuff the candles and I believe that device was called a snuffer. If you search online, you can buy all sorts of candle snuffers that are often short sticks with little bell shaped hoods at the end that you can lower over a candle to snuff the flame.
Now, we often associate hope with light and use phrases like a ray of hope. Candles and flames are also used in the same way so if you snuff out someone’s hope, you take away their hope, you stop them from feeling hope.

Humiliation
Humiliation is a feeling of deep shame or embarrassment. It’s how you feel if someone makes you look stupid or inexperienced in public. In football English, if a team is very badly beaten, then we sometimes refer to the match as a humiliation for the losing team. In reality, in the Premier League, I don’t think that players feel humiliated. The opposing fans might like to act like they think the team’s performance is embarrassing, but I think that the players shouldn’t actually feel humiliation. But it’s part of football English to describe events in this way.

Today, I’ve spoken about 12 useful words and phrases.

The words and phrases were:

• To wear your heart on your sleeve
• An air of confidence
• Well placed confidence
• To put the game to bed
• To draw someone out
• Impeccable timing
• To scrape a goal back
• Too little too late
• To run riot
• To nip
• To snuff out hope
• Humiliation

Listen to the stories one more time to hear this language in context.

Jesus delivers some Christmas joy

As an Arsenal fan, watching Gabriel Jesus this season has been painful. Nobody would ever find fault with the Brazilian striker’s commitment and passion for the match. He wears his heart on his sleeve and every near miss and blocked shot clearly pains him and the fans suffer with him. So when he scored three in the Carabao cup against Palace, he looked so happy and the fans shared in his joy.

On Saturday, when he took to the pitch to face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, there was an air of confidence about him and that belief quickly turned out to be well placed when he took control of the match early on scoring twice in the first fifteen minutes.

Palace did initially equalise after Jesus’s first with a beautiful accurate strike from Ismaila Sarr and later in the match, they were dangerous in attack. David Raya in goal for the Gunners made a few world-class saves that must have frustrated the home side.

Jesus’s early optimism lifted the team. His first two goals gave his side an advantage and when he hit the post and the ball rebounded, Kai Havertz was on hand to put it away.

In the second half, goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice put the game to bed.

Final score: Crystal Palace 1 - 5 Arsenal

City fails to find form at Villa

Manchester City took the trip down to Birmingham to take on Aston Villa. Now, we all know that City have been struggling, but I still can’t quite get my head around their recent form. In the opening minute, Gvardiol made what I would have described as an uncharacteristic mistake and gifted the ball to Jhon Duran who was suddenly on-on-one with the keeper. He took the shot a bit early and Stefan Ortega was able to push the ball away, but it was clear that Villa were feeling confident.

Fifteen minutes later, Martinez played the ball to Youri Tielemans who played a beautiful through ball for Morgan Rogers who timed his run perfectly to break through City’s back line. He held the bell for long enough to draw Martinez out before crossing to Duran who struck well, giving Villa the lead.

In the second half, Villa doubled their lead with a well worked team goal. John McGinn was on the ball with support on both sides, pulling the City defence apart. With impeccable timing, he crossed to Morgan Rogers who slotted the ball into the right hand side, past the outstretched glove of Ortega.

Phil Foden managed to scrape a goal back in stoppage time, despite most of his teammates having already accepted the loss. Savinio took the ball down the right side of the pitch, somehow holding on while surrounded by 4 villa players. He crossed the ball for Foden who clawed his way past Pau Torres and then Lucas Digne before thumping it into the net. He ran to collect the ball, desperate to get the game going again, but it was too little too late.

Final score: Aston Villa 2 - Manchester City 1

Liverpool run riot at Tottenham

Spurs looked slow to start on Sunday while Liverpool looked like they were playing in a higher gear. When Alexander Arnold crossed the ball in, the Spurs defence were half a second slower to react leaving Lucas Diaz with an easy header to put Liverpool in front.

Mac Allister doubled Liverpool’s lead after finding himself in the right place at the right time. Szoboszlai got to the cross, but clashed with Spence and Gray and the ball just popped up, setting up Mac Allister to head the ball into the net.

James Maddison scored for Spurs in the 41st minute with a slightly cheeky effort. Kulusevski had just clattered into Mac Allister and while they were both on the ground Maddison nipped around them, collecting the ball and then fired the ball into the net.

Minutes later, Liverpool snuffed out Tottenham’s half-time hope with a well crafted counter attacking goal. Again, Spurs were just too slow to react and Salah was charging towards the goal with three red shirts in support. He opted for Szoboszlai who made it 3.

In the second half, things didn’t get any better for Spurs. Liverpool kept pushing hard and there were just too many attackers for Spurs to deal with so that when Gray tried to keep the ball out by blocking Szoboszlai’s shot he was simply setting it up for Salah.

Salah got his second just after 60 minutes. Gakpo poked the ball through for Szoboszlai who ran straight through Spurs’ defence. With the keeper and Spence closing in on Szoboszlai, all it took was a tap square for Salah to score.

Dejan Kulusevski looked determined to salvage something from the match and scored with a fantastic finish. He took the initiative, running the ball in before passing to Solanke who held the ball for a touch before crossing it back for Kulusevski who hit home with a confident volley.

Solanke reduced the deficit again with an athletic stretch to push the ball past Alisson. With 8 minutes of normal time to play Spurs were suddenly electrified, daring to dream that they might escape humiliation.

That dream was over just two minutes later when Luis Diaz struck the ball well following a lovely assist from Salah, making this the highest scoring game in the Premier League so far this season.

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 3 - 6 Liverpool

Language challenge

Right, now it’s time.... for you to think about this language again. I have used AI to come up with examples of today’s phrases. I have removed the vocabulary from the stories so I want you to fill in the gaps with the correct forms of the language from the podcast.

Number 1. The manager’s confidence in his latest signing turned out to be __________ and the youngster scored on his debut.

Number 2. The striker cleverly passed the ball back to ______  the defender _______ of position, creating space for his teammate to score.

Number 3. The team managed to _________  back in the dying minutes of the match, giving them a glimmer of hope.

Number 4. We could ____ down to the café for a quick coffee before the meeting starts.

Number 5. Losing their star player to injury in the first half _____________ of victory for the struggling side.

Number 6. Maria wore her _____________ during the presentation, and everyone could tell how passionate she was about the project.

Number 7. The striker’s last-minute goal was impressive, but it was ___________ to save his team from defeat.

Number 8. Forgetting his lines during the play caused him great _________, but the audience was kind enough to cheer him on.

Number 9. The actress walked onto the stage with an_____________, captivating everyone in the theatre.

Number 10. With ______________, the goalkeeper dived to save the penalty, securing his team’s victory.

Number 11. After weeks of negotiations, they finally ____ the contract dispute ________ and signed the agreement.

Number 12. The children _________ in the park, climbing trees and chasing each other around until they were completely exhausted.

Leave your answers to this language challenge in the comments section on the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Twelve Days of Festive Football

And now it’s time for something different. I have taken a famous Christmas song, the 12 days of Christmas and I have changed the words. I’m really not sure if this song is popular out of the UK so if you’ve never heard it, it’s a strange song about someone whose true love sends them increasingly extravagant gifts. I have changed the song to make it about football gifts that a friend gives to his best friend. I want you to identify what each of the 12 football gifts are by listening to the song that my son has sung for you. Now, he’s only young so please be kind about his singing and trust me when I tell you that it’s much sweeter than mine. I’m going to blank out the words in the transcript but on the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website, I’ll make a list that you can copy and paste into the comments if you can hear what my son sings.

So here’s the Twelve days of Festive Football.

On the first day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me: Some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the second day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me: two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the third day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me: three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me: four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me: Five **** *****! Four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me: Six ****** *******, Five **** *****! Four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me, Seven ********* ********, Six ****** *******, Five **** *****! Four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me, Eight ********* *********, Seven ********* ********, Six ****** *******, Five **** *****! Four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me, Nine *********** ********, Eight ********* *********, Seven ********* ********, Six ****** *******, Five **** *****! Four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me, Ten ******* *******, Nine *********** ********, Eight ********* *********, Seven ********* ********, Six ****** *******, Five **** *****! Four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me, Eleven ******* ********, Ten ******* *******, Nine *********** ********, Eight ********* *********, Seven ********* ********, Six ****** *******, Five **** *****! Four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me, Twelve ***** ** ******, Eleven ******* ********, Ten ******* *******, Nine *********** ********, Eight ********* *********, Seven ********* ********, Six ****** *******, Five **** *****! Four ****** *****, three ********, two *********** and some ******* ******** ** *** **.

I hope you enjoyed the song and were able to work out all of the festive football gifts. If you were, leave them in the comments section on the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Before I finish, I am going to go through the answers to the last language challenge.

Number 1: Finally getting to play in the new stadium was great, and the victory was the cherry on top.

Number 2: The aggressive tactics rattled their opponents in the first half.

Number 3: The team held off their opponents for the last ten minutes of the game.

Number 4: After the announcement, there was a frantic scramble to buy tickets.

Number 5: Despite losing, the young player’s performance was a glimmer of hope for the future.

Number 6: As the final whistle blew, all eyes were on the scoreboard.

Number 7: The bad weather seemed to throw everyone off their game.

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 everyone stays fit and healthy and safe. And if you are celebrating Christmas or anything else, I hope you have a very merry time.

Bye for now and enjoy your festive football.