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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\u2019s side will be able to win against Pep Guardiola\u2019s team this coming weekend.<\/p>\n
Arsenal<\/strong> suffered a crushing 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League at the weekend.<\/p>\n The result means that the Gunners are now only six points ahead of second-placed Manchester City<\/strong>who have a game in hand.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Arsenal, who lost to Man City in the Carabao Cup final last month, are in poor form at the moment, and Paul Scholes<\/strong> does not see Mikel Arteta\u2019s side winning the Premier League title this season.<\/p>\n Scholes\u2019 former Man Utd team-mate, Nicky Butt, too, believes that Man City have the edge over Arsenal.<\/p>\n READ: Premier League winners and losers: Manchester City, Arsenal, West Ham, De Zerbi, Thiago, Rosenior<\/strong><\/p>\n Butt said on The Good, The Bad & The Football<\/em> podcast: \u201cUntil you\u2019ve won it, or got over that hurdle, it is an absolute nightmare.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re just thinking that you\u2019re 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\u2019s won the title.\u201d<\/p>\n Scholes noted: \u201cI just think Arsenal have gone, me.<\/p>\n \u201cI just think all the momentum is with City. At some point, you have to beat your rivals. I\u2019ve not seen them do it, they don\u2019t win big games.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Mikel Arteta \u2018nervous breakdown\u2019 contrasts with calmness of Carrick<\/strong><\/p>\n Balague wrote on X<\/em> at 7:05pm on April 13: \u201cTwo things bother me about the narrative building around Arsenal.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, we\u2019re 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\u2019t celebrate the league\u2019s brutal competitiveness and then dismiss sustained title challenges as not good enough. Pick one.<\/p>\n \u201cSecond, 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\u2019s accepting the ceiling. It\u2019s going through the motions. Arteta has never done that. Every setback has been fuel for the next attempt.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSimeone has been at Atl\u00e9tico 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\u2019m convinced that given 14 years like Simeone, Mikel will win more leagues than him.<\/p>\n \u201cArteta 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\u2019t what this is.<\/p>\n \u201cFind another name for it<\/p>\n \u201cBy the way, if City wins the league, the achievement would of course be enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Arsenal 3 Man City 4 in Premier League XI of season so far<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\n