Saturday, September 19, 2015

When God made Saturdays and deemed them proper days for football games in order that we may be happy He made that half of us unhappy who Lost.

Manchester City 1
West Ham United 2

The undersigned had a foreshadowing of this evil four days ago. An ill wind blew through the Etihad during the Juventus match and it blows still:

City's going to go into a funk now. Terrible losses like this do that. Whoever they play next in the EPL has a better chance of winning that match than they did before today.
     -September 15, 9:51 p.m. UTC post.

Chelsea 2
Arsenal 0

One of my best friends is an Arsenal fan. He loves the club, is always secretly optimistic and wrote me on the eve of the season that he thought the EPL title would be decided between "our" two clubs and he believed City would win out. I thought him mad but did not say that. Arsenal had won some preliminary match, perhaps the Commun...Yes! It was the Community Shield, they beat Swine Chelsea, Arsene Wenger's first victory over Jose Mourinho in...maybe forever. It was a big deal and got that bug off his back and all Arsenal followers were optimistic. Then the season started.

Newcastle United 1
Watford 2

The striped-prison shirts were dead last in the league before this match at St. James Park against the newly-promoted "Tigers." When I began following English soccer Newcastle were a top four club with Alan Shearer. A couple of years ago they were RELEGATED! They've gone through a slew of managers, have a new one this season, were sold and have been owned for some years by billionaire Mike Ashley who is as popular among the Toon as AIDS. They have tremendous fan support and St. James is one of the largest stadia in the kingdom. I do not know what the problems have been to cause this fall but they are not "have been," they are.

Both read the same bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. The prayers of both could not be answered...The Almighty has His own purposes and has deemed it His purpose that this Saturday I should be unhappy.