The endgame phase has arrived for the Barclays Premier League season. Dormant hierarchies are reasserting themselves, and short-term hopes are dashed. With seven games left, Everton are now the only club with a chance of breaking into the traditional top four, and the big-club intramurals last weekend saw Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool sort themselves into an order that was as familiar as it was disturbing.
To make sense of the new context, I’m going to have posts over the next few days looking at each of the top four teams and the shape they’re in going forward. That way, when Man Utd actually do win the league by seven points, I will finally be recognized for the bravery of my prescience.
Read More: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, The Edge of the End
by Brian Phillips · March 24, 2008
Can a decision born of prescience truly be recognized for its bravery? It would seem that if one possesses the former, the latter is unnecessary. On a more positive note, that medieval map of Palestine is quite lovely.
I think prescience can be seen as brave—or at least as leading to bravery—when expressing it requires one to run counter to all the prevailing wisdom of the day and to risk derision and contempt. As will clearly be the case when I boldly tip Manchester United to win the Premier League title this season.
Ha! Well played! I, on the other hand, will blur the line between bravery and idiocy by predicting that FC Dallas will win the MLS Cup, compensating for my lack of prescience with a cocktail of inexperience, lack of tactical awareness, and an attachment to my local team approaching Jim-from-Plymouth levels.
Also, Cardiff for the FA Cup.
“…and an attachment to my local team approaching Jim-from-Plymouth levels.”
My reaction to this can only be described as “*sporfle*”. (And I think I’ll get aboard the prescience train and tip Olympiakos to take the Greek league, Red Bull New York to die horribly sometime in or around the playoffs, and water to continue being rather wet.)