Wilfred, a six-year-old Crystal Palace fan, was among the few left standing in The Athletic’s Premier League predictions challenge after Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday night gave him a spot-on scoreline. Manchester City were only 2-0 up at 9.41pm UK time before Savinho scored in the 84th minute and turned a solid home win into a perfect prediction for the child.
The challenge has run every week since the season began in August, with four predictors each round: an algorithm, a guest subscriber on rotation, Wilfred and the writer. The scoring rewards three points for a correct scoreline, one point for a correct result and one bonus point for any unique prediction. Going into the final two rounds, the subscribers held a slender lead over Wilfred, but his Palace allegiance has not stopped him from backing City with accuracy.
There is a neat edge to that result. A Crystal Palace supporter profited from Manchester City’s late goal to beat his own club by three goals, and he did it in a contest where the margins are tiny. The goal that mattered came after City had already looked in control, but Savinho’s finish was the difference between a routine win and the exact scoreline that moved Wilfred closer in the table.
This week’s guest subscriber is Joe, 22, from Birmingham, who predicted a 3-1 Manchester City win over Bournemouth. His reasoning was plain enough: City usually handle Bournemouth, but the match carried a complication because Manchester City had played Chelsea in the FA Cup final three days earlier. Bournemouth, meanwhile, had been unbeaten in 16 league matches since Arsenal won 3-2 at the Vitality Stadium on January 3, a run that makes them a trickier opponent than their record against City suggests.
That is the shape of this challenge. It is not just about picking winners; it is about reading schedules, form and the occasional trap laid by a fixture list. Manchester City have won 16 of their 17 Premier League meetings with Bournemouth, yet the broader picture around Joe’s selection includes a side coming off a cup final and an opponent with momentum. In a separate prediction line in the same week, the competition also touches Aston Villa’s bruising stretch, after Unai Emery’s team played Burnley the previous Sunday and then had a Europa League final against Freiburg on Wednesday.
Elsewhere in the challenge, the numbers remain unforgiving. A correct result is worth one point, a correct scoreline three, and a unique prediction brings a bonus point, so even one sharp call can alter the standings. United’s run against Forest has also come under scrutiny, with the club taking just one point from its past four Premier League meetings with Forest dating back to December 2023.
For Wilfred, though, Wednesday belonged to the smallest of margins and the biggest of swings. A six-year-old who backs Crystal Palace ended up with the exact Manchester City scoreline after Savinho’s 84th-minute goal, and in a contest this tight, that kind of prediction can matter as much as any result on the pitch.
