Scholes plays down comeback effect

Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes does not believe his return to the pitch has had a big impact on the team.

The 37-year-old came out of retirement earlier this month and agreed to stay until the end of the season as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side target their 20th Premier League title.

Scholes has made three appearances since his return and scored in the 3-0 win against Bolton last week, but concedes it took little time to settle back into the squad.

“I don’t think I’ve had too big an effect,” Scholes told Sky Sports.

“I think you have to adjust mentally. It does take a bit of getting used to but the advantage I’d had was that I’d been at the club for the last four or five months doing a bit of coaching.”

“I’d obviously seen the lads every day so it wasn’t too difficult to settle back in.”

United sit three points behind Manchester City in the Premier League after both sides won on Sunday, but Scholes believes his side’s trip to Arsenal was a more difficult test than Roberto Mancini’s men, who hosted Tottenham.

“Obviously both teams won so we are still where we are where we are,” he said.

“I think we had the tougher game because it is always more difficult to go away, and we’ve got the three points.”

“There’s still three months of the season to go and hopefully we’ll be in the right place when the time comes.”