This Week: England Trounce Norway

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 britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish 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.

We’re still a few weeks away from the start of the season, but there has been some news from the world of football. The words and phrases I want to talk about this week are: transfers, deals, winner’s medals, to set standards, astonishing, underway and to dampen someone’s nerves.

Listen out for these phrases in the headlines and stories.

After each story there will be a short language focus and then there will be a task for you to complete and then at the end of the podcast there will be a new football phrase.

Football Phrase

But before that, I want to look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week, here’s one more chance to guess now.

Last week’s football phrase was to ***** ****. This is a phrasal verb and it means to recover quickly from something. If a team suffers a painful defeat you might hear a fan say, I’m sure they will ****** ****. Or perhaps a player suffers a minor injury, their manager might say that they are strong and that they will ****** **** in no time.
Here’s an extra clue: the first part of this phrase is a verb and it describes what a ball does when it hits the ground.

Congratulations to Hayato from Japan, Daniel_06 from Mexico, Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam, Adicon from Germany, HSN from Turkey, Isshin and Goku from Japan and Mehdi Masoumi from Iran. You all managed to work out that the phrase I was looking for last week was to bounce back. Keep listening till the end of the podcast for a new football phrase.

A couple of you wrote asking about my health as my voice was a bit different last week. Thank you - that was kind. I am feeling much better now and my voice has returned, mostly. By the end of last week, I could hardly speak at all so I’m delighted to have recovered.

OK. Now it’s time to get on with this week’s stories from the Premier League and world of football.

Summer transfers as exciting as ever

The summer transfer window is open and the clubs are busy buying and selling players; saying goodbye to some fan favourites and welcoming new blood from Premier League rivals and across the world.

So far, there have been over 700 deals across the top five European leagues amounting to over £1.9bn of business. Over £500m of that has been spent by Premier League clubs.

Manchester United Fans may be sad to hear that Paul Pogba has left the Premier League to play at Juventus in the Italian Serie A. But many more will be rejoicing when they hear about the new players from around the world who have joined Premier League teams like the Norwegian forward Erling Haaland who has signed a five year deal at Manchester City, coming from Borussia Dortmund.

There has also been movement between Premier League clubs. Some of the more valuable moves include Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City to Arsenal, Kalvin Phillps from Leeds United to Manchester City and Richarlison from Everton to Tottenham Hotspur.

The most valuable move of all so far this season is Darwin Núñez who will wear the number 27 shirt at Liverpool after signing for £64.3m.

Language focus

The phrases I want to talk about from this story are: transfers and deals.

The word transfer has come up many times over the years that I have been working on this podcast. The broadest meaning is to move something or someone from one place to another. If you are flying a long journey and have to move from one plane to another to complete your journey, that movement is transferring. You might transfer an important file from a briefcase to the company safe, although I think this use is less common. Money can be transferred from one account to another. If you ever want to send money to someone abroad, you have to call your bank to arrange an international transfer. And of course, when a footballer moves from one club to another, that is also a transfer. I think that it’s more common to use the noun form in football English. A player signs for a new team and then has to do a medical before the transfer is completed.

The common football English collocations with transfer are transfer window, the period when transfers are possible. There is a summer transfer window and a winter transfer window. The other common collocation is transfer deadline day which is the final day that transfers can be submitted to the FA.

The other word I want to talk about is deal. In the story, I said there have been over 700 deals. A deal is an agreement. In business, when people come to an agreement, perhaps something is sold or a service is commissioned, when the money, the costs or charges have been agreed, the business people will shake hands to signify that a deal has been done. We do deals or make deals. You often hear people say that something was a good deal if they have bought something for less money than normal. You can use the word deal as a verb and then it means to do business with someone regularly. You can also use it to talk about all the people that you interact with through your work, even if you are not doing business with them. For example, if you work in security, you may have to deal with the police quite regularly.

Let’s move on to the next story.

Gabriel Jesus joins Arsenal

When Arsenal played FC Nürnberg last week, it was the first opportunity for fans to see Gabriel Jesus in action in an Arsenal kit. The gunners were 2-nil down at halftime. This was only a friendly match, but the team was not looking great against the German second tier team. Arsenal’s manager brought the new signing on at half time and in only 85 seconds, Jesus had scored and shown his team the way.

Although Jesus is only 25 years old, he has earned four top-flight winner’s medals. When his arrival was confirmed, Arteta said: “He is used to winning and he knows that winning is the only way to do it; I think he will set different standards at the club”.

Arsenal were energised by his example in Germany and went on to win the match, scoring five goals, including a second for Jesus.

Arsenal fans will be excited to see if Jesus can continue to inspire his teammates to winning ways when they face Crystal Palace in the opening match of the new season on the 5th of August.

Language focus

The phrases I want to talk about from this story are: winner’s medals and to set standards

The first phrase: winner’s medals is quite easy to describe. A medal is an ornamental metal disk or small badge. Medals are given to soldiers in the army if they do something brave or sometimes if they are injured. In sports, medals are given to the people who win sporting events. In the olympics, the athletes that are the best three in their competition win medals, the gold medal goes to first place, then silber, then bronze. When footballers win the league with their team, their team gets the trophy and the individual players each get a winner’s medal. Here’s something fun: When you write this, the word winners has an apostrophe, a little grammar mark at the top of the letter before the s. We use this apostrophe s to show that something belongs to someone. So you might hear someone say: That is Peter’s sister. And if you wrote that, you would add an apostrophe between Peter and the s. The only time we don’t use an apostrophe to indicate possession is when we use the pronouns his, hers and its. It followed by an apostrophe and s is a contraction of it is. The reason this is fun is that it causes some people, including lots of native speakers, some confusion. If you search for incorrect apostrophe use online, you will find hundreds of examples of signs for shops and stalls where people have added apostrophes where they are not needed.

The other phrase I want to talk about from this story is to set standards or to set the standards. So the standard is the level of quality or effort that is considered acceptable, or OK at a business or other organisation, for example in a sports club. You can have standards in different categories, a standard of cleanliness or hygiene meaning how clean somewhere needs to be or standards for punctuality or productivity. Generally, standards refer to quality so that will depend on the organisation. In a restaurant, it will mean the quality of the food, for a building company it will mean the quality of the buildings and for a football team, it means the quality of the football and the quality of the individual players which covers their skills and their dedication, their confidence, their commitment. Leaders can set the standards for an organisation,sometimes formally through contracts and other times by acting as an example. Arteta has high hopes for Jesus who he believes will set different standards for his teammates at Arsenal.

Let's move on to the final story

England trounce Norway in the Euros

In the Women’s Euro 2022, England stormed into the quarter finals, beating the two-time European Champions Norway and breaking the record for the biggest win in the finals with an astonishing 8-0 victory.

The Women’s Euro 2022 tournament is underway. England are hosting the tournament this year with the final taking place at Wembley on the 31st of July. England and Germany have already secured their places in the Quarter finals with a match to play in the group stages.

When Arsenal’s Leah Williamson led her teammates onto the pitch at Brighton’s Amex Stadium, the Lionesses were prepared to fight. Williamson boasted that they didn’t fear any of the other teams coming into the tournament, but that was probably more about maintaining a positive winning attitude rather than a fair appraisal of their opponents.

That said, on the night Norway did little to dampen the nerves of the English team and by half time had conceded a record 6 goals. Beth Mead put in a particularly spectacular performance, scoring twice in quick succession in the first half and grabbing a hatrick in the 81st minute.

Language focus

The phrases I want to talk about from this story are: astonishing, underway and to dampen the nerves.

If something is astonishing, it is very surprising. The verb to astonish means to stun or shock someone. You might say I was astonished when I heard the news. In this case, you could also say: the news was astonishing.

To be underway means to have started and be happening right now. It’s commonly used to talk about long distance races and motorsports. The grand prix is underway, it has begun. It’s also used in quite formal language to talk about plans that are happening. The renovation project is underway. If a project is over 1/3 of the way through, you might say that it is well underway.

The last phrase I want to talk about today is to dampen the nerves. I said that Norway did little to dampen the nerves of the English team. This is quite a tricky phrase because nerves normally means worries or concerns. If you have an attack of nerves you suddenly feel worried or scared. However nerve can mean the courage and confidence to do something. If you have the nerve to do something you have the courage and confidence to do it and you can lose your nerve meaning you lose the confidence and decide not to do something. In the example in the story, I was referring to the nerve of each of the England players which is why I said nerves.

To dampen something normally means to make something a little bit wet. We also use the verb to mean to reduce the strength of feelings or the power of something, So if you dampen a person’s nerve, you are reducing their courage and confidence. In the story, I said that Norway didn’t do anything to dampen the nerves of the English team.

OK. That’s 7 words or phrases today. The words and phrases from the stories were: transfers, deals, winner’s medals, to set standards, astonishing, underway and to dampen someone’s nerves.

Listen to the headlines one more time to hear these words and phrases in context.

Summer transfers as exciting as ever

The summer transfer window is open and the clubs are busy buying and selling players; saying goodbye to some fan favourites and welcoming new blood from Premier League rivals and across the world.

So far, there have been over 700 deals across the top five European leagues amounting to over £1.9bn of business. Over £500m of that has been spent by Premier League clubs.

Manchester United Fans may be sad to hear that Paul Pogba has left the Premier League to play at Juventus in the Italian Serie A. But many more will be rejoicing when they hear about the new players from around the world who have joined Premier League teams like the Norwegian forward Erling Haaland who has signed a five year deal at Manchester City, coming from Borussia Dortmund.

There has also been movement between Premier League clubs. Some of the more valuable moves include Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City to Arsenal, Kalvin Phillps from Leeds United to Manchester City and Richarlison from Everton to Tottenham Hotspur.

The most valuable move of all so far this season is Darwin Núñez who will wear the number 27 shirt at Liverpool after signing for £64.3m.

Gabriel Jesus joins Arsenal

When Arsenal played FC Nürnberg last week, it was the first opportunity for fans to see Gabriel Jesus in action in an Arsenal kit. The gunners were 2-nil down at halftime. This was only a friendly match, but the team was not looking great against the German second tier team. Arsenal’s manager brought the new signing on at half time and in only 85 seconds, Jesus had scored and shown his team the way.

Although Jesus is only 25 years old, he has earned four top-flight winner’s medals. When his arrival was confirmed, Arteta said: “He is used to winning and he knows that winning is the only way to do it; I think he will set different standards at the club”.

Arsenal were energised by his example in Germany and went on to win the match, scoring five goals, including a second for Jesus.

Arsenal fans will be excited to see if Jesus can continue to inspire his teammates to winning ways when they face Crystal Palace in the opening match of the new season on the 5th of August.

England trounce Norway in the Euros

In the Women’s Euro 2022, England stormed into the quarter finals, beating the two-time European Champions Norway and breaking the record for the biggest win in the finals with an astonishing 8-0 victory.

The Women’s Euro 2022 tournament is underway. England are hosting the tournament this year with the final taking place at Wembley on the 31st of July. England and Germany have already secured their places in the Quarter finals with a match to play in the group stages.

When Arsenal’s Leah Williamson led her teammates onto the pitch at Brighton’s Amex Stadium, the Lionesses were prepared to fight. Williamson boasted that they didn’t fear any of the other teams coming into the tournament, but that was probably more about maintaining a positive winning attitude rather than a fair appraisal of their opponents.

That said, on the night Norway did little to dampen the nerves of the English team and by half time had conceded a record 6 goals. Beth Mead put in a particularly spectacular performance, scoring twice in quick succession in the first half and grabbing a hatrick in the 81st minute.

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about the language again.

Here are 7 sentences with gaps in them and you have to complete the gaps with the words and phrases from this podcast.

Number 1: The new pictures from the James Webb Space telescope are truly __________.

Number 2: After lengthy negotiations, the two directors signed a __________ that will save both their companies a lot of money in the long run.

Number 3: The new season will get __________ on the 5 th of August when Crystal Palace host Arsenal.

Number 4: When Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United, he __________ very high __________ at training sessions.

Number 5: The new player was excited about his debut, but the sight and sound of the crowd slightly __________his __________.

Number 6: Ryan Giggs won the most Premier League __________ __________when he played for Manchester United. He won 13.

Number 7: The manager was determined to find a new striker before the __________ window closed.

Leave your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website and I will go through them next week.

Football phrase

Now it’s time for this week’s football phrase.

This week’s phrase is a **** *****. This phrase is used to describe a team or competitor in a tournament that you think has a good chance of doing very well, far better than anyone thinks they should. They are a surprise team. Now, I don't think that we expect a **** ***** to actually win, but they are a team or a competitor that has a chance that most people haven’t considered. This is a hard phrase so I’m going to give you a clue. The last word in this phrase is an animal. That should help.

If you know the phrase I’m looking for, please leave it in the comments section on the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Very quickly, here are the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1: When I was a kid, I loved the legend of King Arthur and his sword Excalibur

Number 2: He was an evil dictator and was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.

Number 3: Green is the colour of the environmental movement because of its association with nature.

Number 4: The Cruyff Turn is a very tricky move. Whenever I try it, I fall over.

Number 5: People always say that technically a tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable.

Number 6: I went to the swimming gala to cheer on my son who was racing in the 400m freestyle.

Number 7: We are working on a new advertising campaign to try to persuade more people to visit the website.

Number 8: The charity would not be able to operate without the volunteers who work there.

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 all of you stay fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.