Scholes Should Know Better: Arsenal's Title Challenge Contradicts His Own Playing Record

Paul Scholes has wandered into dangerous territory with his latest broadside at Arsenal. The Manchester United legend, fresh from his row with Lisandro Martinez, has now decided to take aim at the league leaders and their credentials.

His gripe? That Arsenal couldn't field a single player in a hypothetical team of the season's front four, despite sitting top of the table by six or seven points. It's a curious argument for someone whose own trophy-laden career provides compelling counter-evidence.

"When have you ever seen a team at the top of the table, who have been top by six or seven points, but if you were picking the best team of the Premier League so far, you wouldn't have one of their players in the front four?" Scholes pondered on Sky Sports after Arsenal's defeat at the Emirates. Jamie Carragher appeared to share the sentiment.

The thing is, Scholes himself was part of a Manchester United side that won the league in 2002/03 with precisely this problem. Only Paul Scholes made the PFA Team of the Year for United's champions. Ruud van Nistelrooy, their Golden Boot winner, didn't get a look-in. Thierry Henry scooped the Player of the Year award instead.

The champions' only representative in that Team of the Year was Scholes himself. Meanwhile, runners-up Arsenal claimed five spots: Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and Henry. Chelsea, sat fourth, had one. Blackburn, in sixth, had one. Even tenth-placed Spurs got a player in there. Yet Scholes still lifted the trophy that season.

Rewind another five years and Arsenal's 1997/98 Double-winning side saw Dennis Bergkamp fly the flag alone for the champions in that year's Team of the Year, while runners-up Manchester United paraded five players in the XI.

Then there's United's 1995/96 title win. Only Gary Neville made the grade for Ferguson's side. Eric Cantona, despite his brilliance and ten assists, didn't get selected. Newcastle finished fourth but somehow squeezed three players in. Villa got two despite finishing even lower.

The historical record is littered with champions who didn't dominate the Team of the Year selections. Leeds' first Premier League title in 1991/92 saw seven of eight clubs represented in the final XI. Manchester City won titles in the seasons immediately before Erling Haaland arrived with Raheem Sterling as their top-scoring league forward—neither player would have graced any team of the season.

Arsenal, currently 25 points clear of Manchester United's lowest-ever title-winning tally from 1997 with 15 games remaining, boast five PFA Player of the Year candidates. They're not the worst team to win anything.

The irony is delicious. Scholes, the very embodiment of a title-winning side that couldn't populate a team of the season, is now insisting it's impossible for a league leader to lack a front-four representative. His own career is living proof that it isn't.