pretender

The game was billed as a meeting between the club that wears the crown and the pretenders whose recent attempts to win the title have ended in the bitter disappointment of falling short.

And finally, the much expected transition, with the Italian legend stepping aside to take charge of the Brazil national team, and the young pretender Alonso returning to the Bernabeu as his successor.

It's a tournament's watershed, where contenders rise and pretenders are washed away.

Artists can sniff out genius from fakes, and Thanos sure looks like a parody of a pretender T.O.P. has encountered in the wild.

Arsenal have been looking for every vital sign that this is the season when they will finally make the leap from pretenders to Premier League champions – but the indications are already ominous.