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Weekly Football Phrase: Too Good to Go Down
In this football phrase of the week we look at the cliche, ‘too good to go down‘ after my favourite team Tottenham lost again at the weekend and are now only four points above the drop zone. You can read the transcript for this post below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us here.
DF: Hello everyone. This is Damian from the Learn English Through Football team and I hope you are all doing well. I am here in London where we have had some spring sunshine today. Finally! And welcome to this week’s football expression and we are going to look at the cliche ‘too good to go down‘ which is often used to describe teams in the relegation battle or relegation zone.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (from a Japanese listener)
DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast, or as we were known before, Languagecaster, and that message was in Japanese.
Too Good to Go Down
DF: Now, it’s the weekend after the North London derby and I am still a little upset after my favourite team Tottenham were well beaten by rivals Arsenal at the weekend. The final score of 4-1, at home, was a thrashing. This latest defeat means that the club are now in 16th place in the Premier League and only four points above the drop.
If a club the size of Spurs, for example, find themselves near the bottom of the league, they can usually find a way to get out of trouble and move up the table; we can say that they are too big to go down, which means that surely a club of this size cannot be relegated. So, a cliche that is sometimes used when a big side like Spurs find themselves in trouble is that they are too good to go down. Remember Spurs are the current Europa League champions. This phrase means that they should be good enough to stay up; they should have enough good players to avoid relegation. But for Spurs this might not be the case this season. They are a big club but it doesn’t mean that they won’t still be relegated.
Spurs are on a terrible run of form; they have not won this year; have only won twice at home all season, have a huge injury crisis and are playing without any confidence at all. And this means that many are now suggesting that they might be relegated; they might go down to the second tier, that’s the Championship. So, now pundits are asking whether Spurs are not too good to go down? Previously, other big sides like Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, Leeds and Aston Villa were all thought to be too good to go down yet ended up being relegated so Spurs have to start winning soon!
There are 11 games left in the season and some players are starting to return from injury so there is still a good chance of staying up. But unless we find some form, hope the returning players hit the ground running and we have some luck – a lot of luck – then maybe we won’t be too good to go down but actually just go down.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (a Brazilian fan)
DF: That message was from a football fan in Brazil. It would be great for more fans to send us on a stinger (or a message) for our show; just say ‘you are listening to Learn English Through Football.com’ in English or in any language that you know! We’d love to hear from you.
Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast
DF: So, on today’s football expression of the week we looked at the phrase or cliche,’too good to go down‘. Do you think Tottenham might go down? Or will they start winning a few games and get out of the relegation zone? And how would you say some of these phrase in another language that you know? Let us know by coming along to Learningenglishthroughfootball.com.
Enjoy all the football this week and we’ll see you soon with another football-language podcast this weekend. Until then, bye bye.
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