Scholes admits he was 'too harsh' on Arsenal after Gunners end 21-year title wait

Paul Scholes has acknowledged he was too critical of Arsenal this season, reversing comments in which he argued no team deserved to win the Premier League, after the Gunners were crowned champions for the first time since 2004.

Arsenal clinched the title after Bournemouth held Manchester City to a draw, ending the campaign seven points clear of their nearest rivals. It completes a turnaround for a side that had let sizeable leads slip in previous seasons without converting them into a championship.

Earlier in the campaign, when Arsenal’s form dipped at the start of March, Scholes had been blunt in his assessment on the Good, the Bad and the Football podcast. “None of them have convinced me that they should be Premier League champions,” he said at the time. “I don’t think they should give the trophy out this year. No one deserves it.”

Revisiting those remarks on the same podcast, Scholes offered a more measured verdict. “It wasn’t the most entertaining, but when you look back, there was a lot of pressure from them to get over the line,” he said. “They’ve done it in a different way and you can see that. It’s not easy to win the Premier League. I was a bit harsh and a bit tough.”

Scholes also raised the question of whether Arsenal can now build on the achievement. “The question now is can they go on and dominate English football,” he said. “I think they will get better, they have the players to get better, they will still need to sign players, but getting over the line is so big, doing it for the first time.”

Arsenal’s attention now turns to a potentially historic weekend. On Saturday, they face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest — the club’s first appearance in the competition’s showpiece since they lost to Barcelona at the Stade de France in 2006. A win would give Arsenal a trophy double that has no precedent in the club’s history.