Paul Scholes predicts Arsenal v Man City title race outcome: ‘Not seen them do it’
Paul Scholes has predicted Manchester City to beat Arsenal to the Premier League title this season, with the former Manchester United midfielder questioning whether Mikel Arteta’s side will be able to win against Pep Guardiola’s team this coming weekend.
Arsenal suffered a crushing 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League at the weekend.
The result means that the Gunners are now only six points ahead of second-placed Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
Man City and Arsenal will lock horns with each other in the Premier League this coming Sunday, with the clash at the Etihad Stadium potentially being a title-decider.
Arsenal, who lost to Man City in the Carabao Cup final last month, are in poor form at the moment, and Paul Scholes does not see Mikel Arteta’s side winning the Premier League title this season.
Scholes’ former Man Utd team-mate, Nicky Butt, too, believes that Man City have the edge over Arsenal.
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Butt said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast: “Until you’ve won it, or got over that hurdle, it is an absolute nightmare.
“You’re just thinking that you’re going to let them down again, and you can see that now with Arsenal and City, especially with Pep in charge, the amount of times he’s won the title.”
Scholes noted: “I just think Arsenal have gone, me.
“I just think all the momentum is with City. At some point, you have to beat your rivals. I’ve not seen them do it, they don’t win big games.”
Amid the pile-on on Arsenal, who lost to Southampton in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup earlier this month but bounced back with a 1-0 win at Sporting CP in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final tie, Spanish journalist Guillem Balague has defended manager Arteta from the criticism.
READ MORE: Mikel Arteta ‘nervous breakdown’ contrasts with calmness of Carrick
Balague wrote on X at 7:05pm on April 13: “Two things bother me about the narrative building around Arsenal.
“First, we’re told constantly that the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world. Fine. So what does it mean to be consistently fighting for the title in that environment? You can’t celebrate the league’s brutal competitiveness and then dismiss sustained title challenges as not good enough. Pick one.
“Second, and IMO this matters more, failure in elite sport is not losing. Luis Enrique said it. Many others have said versions of it. Failure is not trying again. It’s accepting the ceiling. It’s going through the motions. Arteta has never done that. Every setback has been fuel for the next attempt.
“The problem is social media runs on binary outcomes. Win or fail. Hero or fraud. No room for nuance. No room for the manager who rebuilt a club into genuine title contenders and is still hungry for more.
“Simeone has been at Atlético for over a decade. Two league titles, two Champions League finals. Still no European Cup. Nobody serious calls that failure. They call it one of the great managerial tenures in modern football. And I’m convinced that given 14 years like Simeone, Mikel will win more leagues than him.
“Arteta may or may not win the league this year. He may not lift the Champions League this year or next. But as long as he keeps pushing, keeps trying, keeps competing at this level, failure isn’t what this is.
“Find another name for it
“By the way, if City wins the league, the achievement would of course be enormous.”
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