This is what I concluded after my second read through. Obviously English has it's fair share of cocky colleagues but even if he/she was commenting on their own work I don't think it's a big deal. Isn't the point of our intended research to do something groundbreaking and unprecedented? No point in wasting years of our lives plus funding from a prestigious school just to rehash something already widely accepted. Maybe it could've been presented better but given the euphoria of acceptance and the text limitations I vote to just let it slide and be happy for them. Plus if they read even half the remarks here they probably won't bother updating any other acceptances/rejections which would be a shame.
