Paul Scholes says Manchester United's start to the season effectively rules them out of the Premier League title race this season.
United legend Scholes was assessing the title contenders, and said he believes the standard shown in Manchester City's recent draw at Liverpool shows why they will be the two teams to beat as the Premier League resumes this weekend.
Chelsea currently lead the way in the Premier League on 16 points, followed by Liverpool on 15 before United, City, Everton and Brighton are all on 14 after seven games.
However, United are behind the current top three, Scholes said, speaking to Sky Sports' Overlap forum.
"I think it’s between Liverpool and Manchester City," he said.
"I do think there is three great teams [including Chelsea]. I think United have not fallen away, but it’s very early. I just think City and Liverpool, watching that game the quality was just so high, I just can’t see any other team getting close to them."
Expanding on United's situation, Scholes said he felt that a successful season would represent a message being sent to City and Liverpool that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side are ready to offer a serious challenge for the title next year.
"For Ole this season you have to feel them coming," he explained.
"With City when they won the league going back 10 years, they were putting pressure on teams, you felt them coming.
"With Liverpool you also felt them coming, I think they lost out by a point to City or something. I think this season, what would be acceptable is just feeling that team coming just like Liverpool and City did."
