Paul Scholes considers Manchester City as his favourites to win the Premier League title ahead of Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta’s side were held to a 2-2 draw by Sunderland on Saturday night, which allowed City to close the gap at the top of the Premier League to four points with their 3-0 victory at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
City’s Premier League title credentials were questioned in August following back-to-back defeats to Tottenham and Brighton. But since then, Pep Guardiola side have won six of their following eight matches and were denied three points away to Arsenal following Gabriel Martinelli’s injury-time equaliser.
‘I’ve not been impressed by City that much but yesterday [against Liverpool], I thought for the first time they’re going to be [challengers],’ Scholes said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast.
‘I think they’re slightly still favourites ahead of Arsenal, because of what they’ve done.
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‘I know Arsenal are four points clear, but with the experience they’ve got and Arsenal haven’t. You have to put them [City] slightly ahead of them.’
Meanwhile, Robbie Fowler believes Liverpool are already out of the title race following their defeat to City at the Etihad Stadium which has left them eight points behind Arsenal.
‘I’m more of a realist when it comes to football,’ Fowler said.
‘The manager will come out and say all the right things, don’t get me wrong, you can’t say you’ve given up because that looks terrible from the outside looking in.
‘But you’ve got to have a little bit of realism as well because history tells you there’s only been a few team who have won the Premier League on the back of six or seven defeats.
‘It’s going to be hard for Liverpool. If Liverpool want to win the league now, they’ve got to win virtually every game. They can’t even draw games, they’ve got to win them.
‘I think they’re out of the title but I don’t think they’ll come out and say we’re not it, you’ve got that professionalism, you still need to kick on and get the points.
‘I got asked yesterday if Liverpool were out of their rut and I went, ‘don’t be getting carried away’. They beat Aston Villa, for 45 minutes Liverpool weren’t great, then they beat Real Madrid, so it’s only 45 minutes in a league game where they looked relatively okay.’
Scholes added: ‘Before yesterday, I thought they still had a bit of a chance [to retain the title].
‘But you watch yesterday, the way they got beat.’
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