Paul Scholes reveals which Arsenal star he'd 'love' to play with - and why

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·24 de febrero de 2026

Paul Scholes reveals which Arsenal star he'd 'love' to play with - and why

Gunners can form a ‘dream team’ by changing their approach, it has been claimed

Paul Scholes has revealed why he would “love to play with” Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres after the Gunners forward delivered a brace to down Tottenham on Sunday.

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The Swede’s second-half double helped ensure Mikel Arteta’s men returned home from enemy territory with a crucial three points as the Premier League title race heats up, and also took his personal goals tally into double figures in the competition.

Just four players have more league goals than his 10 - half of which have come in his most recent fives appearances - so far in his debut campaign in England’s top flight, while five more successful efforts between the Champions League and Carabao Cup are evidence of decent early returns on the club’s investment.

Gyokeres’s recent uptick in form comes amid continued accusations of being a flat-track bully who is incapable of scoring against in-form clubs, but such criticisms did not come from former Manchester United midfielder Scholes - or his old teammate and current podcast co-host Nicky Butt - after last weekend’s performance.

Reacting to the North London Derby, Butt said he was “delighted” for Gyokeres after watching the 27-year-old find the back of the net twice - first from outside the area to restore Arsenal’s lead shortly after half-time, before his under-pressure finish in stoppage time added gloss to the final score-line.

Goal-scorer: Viktor Gyokeres is finding form at the perfect time for Arsenal

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

“He’s had a lot of crap and a lot of pressure on him; he must have had a load of stick off Arsenal fans about forwards, the forwards they’ve had, and looking at him, his two finishes yesterday, he hit them as clean as a whistle,” Butt assessed.

Chiming in, Scholes said that while he doesn’t believe Gyokeres has “the quality of a [Ruud] van Nistelrooy [or] an Andy Cole”, he would have valued having the Swede as a teammate during his playing days.

“I think you’d love to play with him, he works his b******s off,” he admitted.

Butt went on to say that he doesn’t see Gyokeres as an “out-and-out goal-scorer” like Cole, and suggested Arteta could get the best out of his squad by tweaking his formation.

”If you’re playing two up front and you’ve got [Gyokeres] with a goal-scorer, you’ve got a dream team, but I don’t see him as an out-and-out goal-scorer.”