Paul Scholes claims two teams will not rival Arsenal for the Premier League title | Football

Paul Scholes believes Manchester United and Chelsea will not challenge Arsenal for the Premier League title this season.

After winning their first two Premier League games, Chelsea suffered their first defeat under Xabi Alonso on Sunday as they were beaten 2-1 by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

United, meanwhile, suffered a 2-0 defeat away to Hull City on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season but followed that up with a 5-2 win at home to Ipswich Town before their 2-2 draw with Everton last Sunday.

Arsenal and Manchester City are the only two sides who have won all three of their Premier League games so far and Scholes feels that the title race will be limited to those two teams.

‘I don’t think Chelsea are a title rival, I think they’ve got a bit of work to do,’ Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast.

‘You think, they’ve let Enzo [Fernandez] go to City, he was probably their best midfield player, Caicedo is still not fit.

‘They’re playing two full-backs in midfield. Reece James is alright as a midfield player but I don’t think you’re going to get 38 games out of him. Gusto came on [against Arsenal] as a midfield player. Obviously [Moises] Caicedo is a big miss for the but still I think they’ve got issues defensively.

‘I think Chelsea promised to him and to City that he could go. Now sometimes you don’t care about that, and they failed to get the lad they wanted from Monaco, at the last minute they knew they failed and could’ve stopped that from happening.

‘For Chelsea, Chelsea have been very nice about this – Chelsea could have stopped that. If you’re thinking about you’re own tem, look at that team [aaginst Arsenal] in centre midfield, you’d think ‘I wouldn’t mind having Enzo Fernandez playing for us today’. I don’t think that’s something Sir Alex [Ferguson] would do. I think you have to give Chelsea credit for sticking to their word, it’s not something that always happens in football.’

Scholes, meanwhile, has backed United to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League but insists Michael Carrick’s side will not pose a threat to Arsenal or Manchester City.

‘They will be top four, but don’t be expecting a title challenge, no chance,’ Scholes said.

‘It’s obvious that defensively they’re not good enough. They are going to concede goals. Recruitment wise, it seems they’re sorting it section by section. They did the forwards last year, very good, they’ve done the midfield this year, we still don’t know if that will work. There are players in there potentially who could be good, [Andrey] Santos and [Carlos] Baleba, we don’t know how good they will be. If those two come together they might help the team defensively.

‘But the back four has not been touched and they’ve not been touched in years and they’ve not been good enough for years. So how you expect that to get better I don’t know.

‘I’d expect next summer, hopefully Michael is still there and they have a decent season, I think they’ll have a new back four next season.

‘It’s almost conceding this year that we’re not going to challenge for the league. That’s not Man United.’

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