Paul Scholes aims ‘worst coaches ever’ ever dig at Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola

Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola’s sides could not be separated on Sunday (Picture: Getty Images)

Watching Arsenal vs Manchester City on Sunday could leave you thinking Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola are the “worst coaches ever,” reckons Manchester United legend Paul Scholes.

The two Premier League heavyweights met at the Emirates on Sunday and played out a 1-1 draw, which was intriguing but not necessarily thrilling throughout.

Erling Haaland put the visitors ahead after nine minutes and it took until the 93rd minute for Arsenal to find an equaliser through substitute Gabriel Martinelli.

Arteta came in for some criticism for his team selection as he picked a relatively stodgy midfield three of Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice and Mikel Merino, leaving Eberechi Eze on the bench, while Martin Odegaard is out injured.

He brought Eze on at half-time, but Jamie Carragher accused the Gunners boss of wasting the first 45 minutes of the match, during which Arsenal achieved very little going forward.

Scholes agrees with the former Liverpool defender and felt both managers were far too cautious on Sunday and if it were not for their glowing reputations, would have been seen as putting on a dire spectacle.

‘It was a very negative team, I thought. He’s almost gone back 20 years,’ Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast of Arteta. ‘I know he’s been in England a long time but it’s almost like we’ve brought an English mentality to him. “Be cautious at first, be safe and try to get through the game.”

Paul Scholes did not love the Arsenal vs Man City clash (Picture: Getty Images)

‘You could say that about both of them. If they’d have been two English coaches yesterday [Sunday] we’d have been saying: “Worst coaches ever, the worst style of football we’ve ever seen.” But because it was them two they get away with it, don’t they?’

The result put Arsenal back into their familiar position of second in the Premier League, but they are already five points behind leaders Liverpool.

Scholes believes Arteta’s safety-first mentality will not see them bridge that gap to the champions.

‘At some point Arsenal have got to win a big game if they’re going to win a Premier League and they’re not brave enough,’ said the former England midfielder. ‘At home especially. I always think at the start of the season, win your home games, especially against the big games.

Arteta is under some pressure to bring in silverware this season (Picture: Getty Images)

‘If you go away from home, there’s tough places to go, there’s Liverpool and other places, and if you draw them, yeah great, you accept that. But that home game yesterday was a massive chance to make a statement. I don’t think Arsenal have been great of late.

‘It felt like, “I’m just going to pick the biggest team I’ve got and try to just get through the game.” Probably trying to win by set-pieces. You talk about Sam Allardyce and these English coaches, that’s exactly what they try and do. But you’re talking about a top club, you can’t really get away with that.’

Arteta defended his midfield selection after the game, pointing out that the same three started in midweek against Athletic Club in the Champions League and there was no criticism as Arsenal won that game 2-0.

‘I thought it was the best one to start the game,’ he said of his trio in the middle of the park.

Mikel Merino started the game but was subbed off at the break (Picture: Getty Images)

‘Nobody asked me about the midfield three in Bilbao, nobody, it’s the same midfield. I believed it was the best thing for the team.’

He added:’I think it’s very clear what we wanted to do, very well we started the game. I think we completely dominated.

‘I think after they scored the goal without doing absolutely nothing before that, we went a bit shaky for 5-10 minutes and after that we got a grip again and started to dominate and I think the second half was a continuation of that with one different player and then with two or three different players.’

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