Paul Scholes thinks Arsenal has failed Liverpool test as Man City challengers become clear

Liverpool and Arsenal currently find themselves in second and third place in the Premier League, having played out a draw at the Emirates at the weekend. Paul Scholes believes that the Reds have proved themselves more capable of challenging Manchester City for the title.

It's once again Pep Guardiola's side leading the way. Arsenal has been the closest challenger in each of the past two seasons, although Liverpool kept pace throughout most of Jurgen Klopp's final campaign — and Scholes believes they could mount another serious challenge under Arne Slot.

Almost 25 per cent of the way through the Premier League season, Manchester City and Liverpool are separated by a single point, with Arsenal a further four points back. Technically speaking, then, it is only the top two who still mathematically control their own fates.

• England and Germany fighting over Liverpool wonderkid in another Jamal Musiala case

• Pep Guardiola agrees with Arne Slot verdict on Erik ten Hag after Man Utd exit

But Scholes has his doubts about Arsenal for more fundamental reasons than that. The Manchester United legend is yet to be convinced by the Gunners' mentality when it comes to the biggest matches.

"Arsenal have got to do better in the big games," Scholes told The Overlap Fan Debate from Sky Bet. "At some point, they’ve got to beat Liverpool.

"If you want to go and win the league, you need to beat your big rivals — they’re big points and big games.

"I keep going back to that game last year at Manchester City where Arsenal had a great chance at winning the league, City had some players missing, and they were so happy with a draw. That’s a mentality that needs to change."

It's always a delicate balance to strike. Sharing the points with Manchester City is no mean feat, and Liverpool and Arsenal now probably regard one another in a similar light.

But settling for draws piles the pressure on Arsenal (and Liverpool, for that matter) to take more points than Manchester City in all of the other games against the rest of the league. As Klopp learned more than once, that is far easier said than done.

Liverpool has rarely looked like it is playing for draws. But the fine margins speak for themselves: twice, a win instead of a draw against Manchester City would have produced another title.

Scholes feels that message is yet to really sink in at Arsenal. As well as points on the board, he believes Arteta is giving up valuable momentum:

"I know he had issues with players suspended and injured [against Liverpool] on Sunday, so he probably thought it was a fair result but at some point, you’ve got to have the mentality to beat these teams," Scholes said. "You can win the league without beating the teams around you, but we always felt that going to Liverpool in March, if you won that game, it was massive — going to Chelsea and Arsenal winning games, it was so big.

"I don’t think Arsenal have proved that they can do that, but I think Liverpool can. There is no proof of that yet against this brilliant City team, but out of the two teams, Liverpool are the ones more capable of doing it than Arsenal."

As Scholes rightly says, Liverpool does not have the best recent history of going to Manchester City and claiming all three points either, securing draws in both fixtures last season. But Slot has inherited a side whose key performers know what it takes to topple Guardiola, both in an individual game and over the course of a full campaign — we're yet to see evidence that Arsenal is there yet.

Liverpool.com says: At the end of the day, Manchester City is just frustratingly good. Scholes obviously brings a valuable perspective, but he won his titles without routinely having to go way north of 90 points.

Neither Liverpool nor Arsenal have really fallen short in recent times because of mentality problems. It's simply very hard to amass more points than Manchester City over the course of 38 games.

Having said that, this means that the games between the top sides take on even greater significance. So maybe both Liverpool and Arsenal do need to be a bit more all-or-nothing when facing off in potential title clashes, including against one another.