On the 8th of January 2012 Sir Alex Ferguson made one of his most inspiring moves of his career – bringing Paul Scholes out of retirement.
Since that day United have taken 34 out of a possible 36 points in the league with the only slip up coming in the 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge in February. This is compared to the previous twelve games without Scholes when United took a possible 25 out of 36 points. During this period they lost three and drew one out of the twelve games that they played.
The team is now on the brink of their 20th Premier League title and a lot of credit has to be given to Paul Scholes who has had a massive impact since he returned. United have taken nine more points in the twelve games since Scholes returned than they did in the twelve games previous, which has helped put them eight points clear of rivals Man City.
Man United have also conceded half the amount of goals since Scholes returned as they have only conceded seven goals in the last twelve games compared to the fourteen they conceded in the twelve games prior. Although, six of the fourteen goals were conceded in the 6-1 defeat to Man City in October.  They have also kept the same amount of clean sheets (7) in the twelve games before Scholes returned as well as the twelve games since he returned.
On the other hand, United have scored six less goals since Scholes returned as they have only scored 29 goals compared to the 35 goals they scored in the twelve games before he came out of retirement.
As you can see from the table above Paul Scholes has scored 3 goals in the 769 minutes that he has played, which is a goal every 256 minutes.
Next Page: Scholes passing & loss of possession compared to Toure, Lampard, Arteta and Modric.
