By Blacksheep
If you live and work in Britain (and much of the English speaking world in fact) then you will probably know recognise Thursday as the 4th day of the week. It comes after Wednesday and before Friday.
I associate several things with Thursday: it is my heaviest teaching day during term time, it is the day named after my favorite deity (Thor), it is the name on which elections are usually held in the UK, and (from by old bookselling days) ‘super’ Thursday is a day when huge numbers of new titles are published in the run up to Christmas.
Apart from its link to Thor (and Jupiter) Thursday has other religious connections: Maundy Thursday celebrates Jesus’ commandment to his followers to wash their (and other peoples’) feet. In Judaism Thursdays are good days to fast. In Thai Buddhism Thursdays are meant to be ‘teacher’s days’ (I like that) and a good day to start your education. Maybe this is why A level and GCSE results come out on a Thursday.
In popular literature Thursday’s child ‘has far to go’; in Thursday’s Fictions by Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman, ‘Thursday’ is a woman who tries to cheat the cycle of reincarnation to get a form of eternal life.
Inspector Thursday is also the young Morse’s boss and guide in the excellent prequel (to Inspector Morse) entitled Endeavour.
In Chesterton’s The Man who was Thursday a group of anarchist conspirators all turn out to be agent provocateurs. In the Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams has Arthur Dent say, “This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays”. A few minutes later the planet Earth is destroyed (by Vogons – quoting awful poetry).
In some parts of the world (Scandinavia for example) you can shop late on a Thursday (come to think of it my branch of Waterstone’s opens late on Thursdays). There also appears to be a retail thing called ‘orange Thursdays’ but I don’t pretend to know anything much about it.
Anyway…
What I am trying to say is that whilst I associate Thursdays with a lot of things I
MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT ASSOCIATE THURSDAYS WITH FOOTBALL.
And yet this coming Thursday (21st April) Arsenal are playing West Bromwich Albion (not to be confused with perfidious Albion, or “albion the next train home my dahlin”…) ON A THURSDAY evening.
Why is this? Can anyone please explain what was wrong with the Wednesday? Why am I having to dash home from work in Northampton to race to the pub to get a drink in before the short hop to the Emirates?
This is not right. Football does not take place on Thursdays – unless…
…unless teams are competing in the Europa League.
So is this designed as a rehearsal for next season? In fact can we explain our recent collapse/s against West Ham and Crystal Palace as evidence of a desire to play Europa League football next season instead of our traditional Champions League fare?
Do the club know something we don’t? Because I can tell you that getting to Arsenal on a Thursday night having (usually) finished teaching at 5 over 60 miles away is not going to be easy. Especially given that some EL matches start much earlier than CL games.
So Arsenal, if you would be so very kind can we endeavor to keep Thursdays free of football in future?
Thank you ever so
Blacksheep
Editor’s note: Apologies for the lack of a lunchtime post today and other slow things – I’ve been having my day in court – and their lordships tend not to like defendants to bring their laptops into the hallowed courtroom and start writing football blogs. I shall publish details (should anyone be interested) on my facebook page shortly https://www.facebook.com/TonyAttwoodofLondon
- FA Ladies Cup Semi-final report Arsenal v Sunderland
- Arsenal v Palace: Premier League victory number 500 would do nicely
- We cannot have a situation like the Summer of 2015
@Blacksheep,
1. In my youth, Thursday was a favourite day, named after Thor the God of Thunder.
2. After WW2, in many jobs in civilian life, Thursday was a half-day and the afternoon was devoted to sport.
3. After the shambles against Crystal Palace, the Gunners need 3 full days to sort out their shortcomings. Wednesday will be an important build-up day.
ps Not too happy that the Ed is a “defendant” in court. Is the aaa suing him?
Fortunately our following match wont be until Sunday, so we’ll have adequate recovery time.
It does seem a bit odd though. When was the last time a Premiership game was played on Thursday?
Please don’t tempt the fates by suggesting it could be a Europa League rehearsal.
The Thursday game also clashes with our next Ladies game which has a 18:00 kickoff so again no chance of seeing both live. This time io’ll be with the men
The ladies host Chelsea in a dress rehearsal for their Cup Final. Kickoff time has been changed for TV but I don’t know which channel.
I’m at Borehamwood for the U21 game. Trust me Monday is a worse day for football than Thursday
Disappointing evening with the U21s who lost two one. Jack played the full 90 minutes and scored our goal but looked s long way away from first team level.
I should think both the AFC & WBA must have been consulted to agree between themselves on a convenient day for them to play this match, by the League management board or the FA, whichever of the 2 bodies is responsible to reschedule the date to play this match.
Mr. Blacksheep, I am aware of Maundy Thursday. But I never knew the day is also associated with a thunder deity called Thor. In Yoruba nation in Nigeria and elsewhere, the name for the God of thunder is called, Sango Obakoso. And he has a wife called Oya – the river Niger.
Every day of the week must have a meaning and some hidden revelations behind it. Some of the behind the mask of the day Thursday of the week which you’ve revealed are much revealing, educative and fascinating to me. Thanks.
Well, I hope the Boss will start a Gunners start that will beat WBA to the 3 points at stake on Thursday night to enhance our quest to qualify for the Cl next season. That’s all we can look forward to achieve now. And I hope we shall achieve that as a consolation price for our Gunners undisciplined title campaign which is seeing them missing out on this season’s title.
i will most likely get slaughtered, but its really bugging me, Ok, so when we play well and win its AW’s brilliance, tactical awareness, brilliant players, great team work, mental strength etc etc. no problem there. when we lose? Nothing to do with poor finishing, shoddy defence, positional naivety, selfishness etc?? ahh it’s the refs fault, conspiracy against Arsenal! Big problem here, because we are just putting our heads in the sand and not accepting the reality. One conspiracy is to make Leicester win, but then they are a decoy to make Duds win because they are Arsenals rival? How come this was not plotted for the last 12 or more yrs? So what’s the real conspiracy then? The PGMO to make Leicester win, or Duds win?…its confusing. maybe they have done some sort to voodoo in their grand plot to make Arsenal miss chances, not shoot from outside the box when they can, not put good crosses when we have Oliver in the box, not make quick passes, not make penetrating runs in the box, not defend properly, play like school boys, make the same mistakes again and again and again?…..they are made to be brain dead. We need to stop this sabre rattling and take bloody good look at ourselves first.
They are fair questions Gouresh but if you take the time to go on Arsenal.com you will see an excellent explanation from Adrian Clarke about what went wrong and what went right against CP. He WILL make comments IF there ios a poor referee performance or if some players are not pulling their weight, but unlike you, he knows how to really analyze the game from a tactical, strategic and player point of view. In actual fact he maintains that we don’t make the same mistakes time and time again, despite your contention that we do. He does point out that some players let off too early and that our defense makes one or two crucial mistakes , but which EPL team doesn’t?
Also try looking at the Football is fixed website, which proclaims that Leicester and the Spuds are in fact getting some help from various EPL sources! While you’re at it, take the time to do a complete season analysis of all Arsenal games and the referee’s performances like Walter and Usama have done….then you can dismiss their contentions IF you can prove that there is NO advantage given by the PIGMOB to our opponents.
Its bad enough that we may not have our annual St. Totteringham’s Day this year ( but still keeping my fingers crossed that it will happen !) , the thought that we have to play on Spursdays next season is not too mouth watering a prospect !
I believe that there are still a few twists to this EPL season’s rollercoaster ride . No one has fallen off their seats or puked yet ! Some comments here have me nauseous ! Just waiting for the fat lady to screw up her singing !
The confusing Rooster puzzle –
A little silver-haired lady calls her neighbor and says, “Please come over here and help me. I have a killer puzzle, and I can’t figure out how to get started.” Her neighbor asks, “What is it supposed to be when it’s finished?”
The little silver-haired lady says, “According to the picture on the box, it’s a rooster.” Her neighbor decides to go over and help with the puzzle. She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table.
He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says, “First of all, no matter what we do, we’re not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a rooster.” He takes her hand and says, “Secondly, I want you to relax. Let’s have a nice cup of tea, and then,” he said with a deep sigh……
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“Let’s put all the Corn Flakes back in the box.”
A psychiatrist (Epstein) went to Thailand with some colleagues to meet a well-known Buddhist sage. As they were about to leave they asked if he had a final message for them.
He was drinking a glass of water at the time so he held it up and said, “You see this glass. I love this glass. It holds water so I can drink from it.”
He then held it up to the light and said, “When the sun shines through it you can see colors.”
“It also plays music.” He set it down and pinged it with his finger to make a noise.
“Then when I set it down, the wind blows through the window, knocks it over, and breaks it,” he said. “And because I know this possibility to be true, I love this glass even more.”
omgarsenal; stats show that something is not right with the refs but why does that stop us doing the simple things right? we are constantly banging about the refs, I may have missed but are there any articles on how we played? everything is focused on the refs performance….what about ours? when will be look at ourselves? what’s the club doing about the ref situation? they should be making a hell-of-a noise on this but they are not.. AW’s press conference about the change in ref last week shows that they don’t feel anything is wrong….that was a opportunity to slam the ref’s and PGMO. they did not take it itself shows that they don’t feel its an issue. Ok we can dissect the game and all that….have we corrected our mistakes?
102 ‘DISLIKES’ for OMG ?
Really ?
Why ?
Have you always been anti-social , or hate people who see the brighter side of things ?
Unhappy with your lot in life ? Unable to sleep ,eat , form stable and long lasting relationships , and/or are unable to hold down a job ?
Do you blame AW, the board , the owner , the players and Untold Arsenal for all your low esteem , as well for your unhappiness ?
Well today is your lucky day ! The Medical Division of UA is here to help .
Go to this site and understand your problems and begin your journey back to sanity and discover joy in the universe .
http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/
Remember , tell only the truth and redeem yourself .And do it when sober .
OMG – well I liked you anyway!
Football is Fixed appears to be down or malfunctioning. Unclear why – I’m sure there are many theories…
OMG
There are some sad individuals around, I can’t imagine what sort of person would keep clearing his cache 104 times just to dislike your post. Only a deeply disturbed individual could do that, but then again they live among us…
Gouresh,
Don’t take this as criticism but I think you do come across as displaying some naivety when it comes to assessing football. You say Wenger’s press conference shows he thinks everything is ok, well nothing could be farther from the truth. He can only say that to stay on the right side of the FA disciplinary committee. Also you seem to discount the one or two disadvantages the team face from dubious decisions. There is a very thin line between victory and defeat in football, unlike other sports where there plenty of room for recovery. So a dodgy offside goal, penalty, or red card is all that’s required to tilt a match.
For those who are too busy , try this site.
https://www.facebook.com/HigherPerspective
10 things you need to give up if you want to be happy…
1. LIMITING BELIEFS –
Arsenal will one day win the whole lot. Believe me .
2. DWELLING ON THE PAST –
Forget about The Invincibles ,Henry , Pires , Vieira , the doubles , GG ,etc.
3.WORRYING ABOUT THE FUTURE –
The future will be very bright after justice be done .
4.NEGATIVE SELF TALK –
Allow your positivity to soar .Let us hear you ROAR at The Ems .
5.THE NEED TO IMPRESS OTHERS –
Fuck ‘them’ ! They don’t count.
6.COMPLAINING –
Don’t hyperventilate and stop depleting the Earth’s oxygen .
7.THE NEED TO BE ALWAYS RIGHT –
Only way to be always right is to constantly lie and keep changing the ‘facts’ and the playing field.
8. RESISTANCE TO CHANGE –
Water will always find its own level . Don’t fight it .
9. BLAMING OTHERS –
Unless you are blaming the crooked refs,The FA , UEFA , FIFA and other cheating bastards !
10. THE NEED FOR OTHER’S APPROVAL –
The media , commentators and other fans can shag themselves silly .
UP THE GUNNERS !
Al, no criticism taken. No naivety where the game in concerned because I have played football for 20 yrs on a semi pro level in Pune [India]. Our team, Shivajians [now called DSK Shivajians] was the top club and I have had a really fair share of corrupt refs. In fact, when we had a certain ref as the main official, we would give a written protest and at one time decided not to play. When he was there, our plan was very simple….do not play in a manner which would make him take a decision against you. Eg: stupid tackles near the box, or sliding tackles when not necessary, or tackles in the box…what I mean to say is that were extra careful fully knowing what the consequences would be. I would tell my players, that if we score goals, there is no way he can disallow them. He may give 1or 2 strange decisions, but if we kept our noses clean and got the goals, that was it. And tell you what, it worked.
I still maintain the fact that the club is doing nothing behind the scenes because it shows…..we even don’t have control over BT our sponsor. Have you need some for their advts? Always showing Arsenal in the bad. If you can’t influence them what hope have you got against the PGMO? You speak about sanctions…..there are diplomatic means of getting your point. He could have pointed the number of ref’s in the EPL? He could have pointed from where the most of them are. He could have said that the PGMO is secretive…would he get fined for speaking the truth? Surly not.
Get your point, Gouresh but here political correctness seems to take precedence over everything; you can’t accuse someone of anything unless you have solid hard evidence and there is absolutely no room to debate it. So Wenger highlighting any of the things you say will soon find himself labelled a whinger, facing FA sanctions, etc. We all saw how inept Moss was at the weekend, but Carroll, rightly or wrongly, is likely going to get charged for questioning the puzzling officiating we saw.
Remember Wenger referred to these things once, when he said there is a website that checks refs, he knows and is fully aware of this. But his hands are tied. Also remember that he said he sees shocking things in football daily that he can’t talk about, but will maybe write a book one day when he retires. The people who can do something about it without really facing any consequences is us the fans.
You say you used to tell your players not to make any stupid tackles so as not to give the ref any chance of screwing you. Given how our players get punished for slightest of offences, don’t you think this is also contributing to some of the goals we’re conceding, in that our players don’t make the tackles they wahould be making for fear of giving the ref the chance to either card them or award a penalty, leading to the other team scoring? We all saw how Andy Carroll stayed on the pitch after tripping and swuping Kos, elbowing Gabriel etc, without sanction. Players who are on the receiving end of such treatment are fully aware of these things, but if the ref is determined to blow his whistle one way only what can they do.
If you dislike this you are stupid. ;(
Good thing is it gives the site clicks for advertising benefits. 😉