Declan Rice's key flaw in Arsenal title charge highlighted by Tottenham derby blunder

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·24 de fevereiro de 2026

Declan Rice's key flaw in Arsenal title charge highlighted by Tottenham derby blunder

A slip-up from the Gunners midfielder has raised questions about his temperament and the squad’s perceived lack of leaders

Declan Rice looks “too emotional” and lacks the “calmness” of a true leader capable of helping Arsenal to a Premier League title, Paul Scholes has claimed.

Vídeos OneFootball

So often a stand-out performer for the Gunners, Rice was at fault for an uncharacteristic error that allowed Tottenham back into last weekend’s North London Derby when he was dispossessed while trying to dribble out from the edge of his own area.

Moments prior, as Arsenal celebrated taking an early lead, the 27-year-old had pointed to his temple and vehemently urged his team-mates to focus having let leads slip in recent away games at Brentford and Wolves.

Yet it was his own poor decision making that meant Mikel Arteta’s side have now conceded 10 times within ten minutes of scoring across all competitions in 2026 alone.

While the mistake ultimately did not result in any dropped points on this occasion, with the Gunners running out 4-1 winners, ex-Manchester United midfielder Scholes suggested he is not sure whether Rice has the temperament required to lead a title-winning team.

Responding to former United teammate Nicky Butt’s claim on the pair’s The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast that Rice is a “big leader”, Scholes said: “When I look at Declan Rice, he almost looks too emotional.

“He’s lively, he’s [saying], ‘come on, come on!’ - and then he makes his mistake.”

He continued: “When Roy Keane was getting the team together and leading the team really well, there’s a certain calmness about it.

“When you’re going for a league title, when you’ve got tough games, there has to be a calmness about you. I like the emotions, it’s hard to take that out of him, but there has to be a little bit of calmness when you’re in situations like that.”

Butt appeared to give Rice some grace, saying he thinks it’s “because he wants to win so much”, but then raised a similar concern regarding a perceived lack of leaders in Arteta’s squad.

“What rang a little alarm bell with me with that is that when that happened, not one Arsenal player had a go at him,” he mused.

“If you rewind to a Martin Keown, Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira, [Thierry] Henry, all these players, or [Roy] Keane, [Steve] Bruce, [Bryan] Robson, Mark Hughes, [Eric] Cantona, they would take you to the cleaners. Who are the ones in the [current Arsenal] team to try and get them over that line?

“That’s the concern for me: I don’t see the actual leaders at that club.”

Clarifying his earlier point on Rice, Scholes went on to add: “We want to see emotion, but it has to be in the right way.”