Arsenal news: Declan Rice’s behaviour called out as Man City ‘could face 60-point deduction’
Mirror Football looks at two stories involving and potentially affecting Arsenal
Declan Rice was at fault for a goal against Tottenham(Image: CaméraSport via Getty Images)
As the dust settles after Arsenal’s dramatic 4-1 victory over Tottenham, several stories involving the Gunners have hit the headlines. Mikel Arteta’s side secured their second win of the season in the north London derby in convincing away style thanks to braces from Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres.
Sunday’s drubbing restored their lead in the Premier League table to five points after a nervy few weeks which saw them drop four points at Brentford and Wolves. Second-placed Manchester City have one more match to play and will face Leeds this Saturday.
Arsenal’s next game is another high-stakes London derby this Sunday against Chelsea at home, who they beat in the Carabao Cup semi-finals twice earlier this year. NOW, Mirror football brings you two of the biggest stories affecting people in North London.
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Scholes calls Rice ’emotional’
Paul Scholes has challenged Declan Rice’s “overly emotional” behavior following his mistake against Spurs. Rice was seen telling his teammates to stay focused after Arsenal took the lead at Tottenham, only to make a sloppy error and give the ball away in a dangerous area two minutes later, handing the home side an equalizer.
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The midfielder raised his hands and apologized before putting in a solid game. But Scholes believes the England international still lacks the calm leadership of a Premier League legend like Roy Keane.
The Manchester United icon said on the Good, the Bad and the Football podcast: “When Roy (Keane) was getting the team together and managing the team really well, there was a certain calm. When I look at Declan Rice, he almost looks too emotional.
“He’s lively, he says: ‘Go! Go! Go!’ And then he makes his mistake. When you aim for a championship title, when you have difficult matches, there has to be calm within you. I think potentially (he’s a captain). It’s just that when I look at him now, he’s so emotional.”
Scholes added: “I don’t like the whole thing (Rice riling up the crowd moments before Kolo Muani’s goal). I don’t like people being so emotional like that. People will call me a miserable b****** and say you don’t want to take the emotion out of the game.
“And of course we don’t want emotion, but it has to be in the right way. Scoring goals and celebrating is great. But in game management, in game situations, there has to be calm.”
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Man City charges update
A football finance expert says Manchester City could be deducted between 40 and 60 points if found guilty of the most serious charges against them. City and the Premier League are still awaiting the verdict over 115 alleged financial violations committed by the club between 2009 and 2018.
While the hearing into City’s alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules concluded in December 2024, following a 12-week tribunal, the independent commission has still not made its decision public. Meanwhile, City have denied any wrongdoing and appear confident of being cleared.
It has already been 14 months since the tribunal, and the commission is still deliberating. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire says around 500,000 pieces of evidence were presented by the defense and prosecution throughout the trial.
Maguire believes a verdict could be announced in the coming months. He also said the precedent of Everton and Nottingham Forest being hit with deductions of six and four points respectively for a single offense covering a three-year period could mean City would receive a much harsher penalty due to the charges covering a nine-year period, if found guilty.
He said on The Overlap Fan Debate: “I think you have to add a zero to what we’ve seen from Forest and Everton, so somewhere between 40 and 60 points would be, I think, on substance, consistent with what we’ve seen from other decisions on the logic. If they want to go further, we don’t know the severity.”
It remains to be seen whether such extreme punishment will be meted out. And Arsenal would be wise not to pay too much attention to it, given it’s unclear which season a possible deduction would end up impacting.