Arsenal latest: Declan Rice told he must change as Man City get ’60-point deduction’ claim

Arsenal are in the midst of a rare midweek off, although there’s still plenty of news surrounding the Premier League leaders and their title rivals

Several stories involving Arsenal have made headlines since the Gunners’ emphatic 4-1 victory over Tottenham.

Mikel Arteta’s men secured their second north London derby win of the season in dominant fashion away from home, courtesy of two goals each from Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres.

Sunday’s thrilling triumph extended their lead at the Premier League summit to five points after a tense period that saw them drop four points against Brentford and Wolves. Second-placed Manchester City still have a match in hand, though, and face Leeds this Saturday in their next fixture.

The Gunners’ next game is another high-stakes London derby this Sunday against Chelsea at home, who they beat in the Carabao Cup semi-final twice earlier this year. football.london now takes a look at two of the biggest developments concerning the north London side.

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Scholes labels Rice ’emotional’

Paul Scholes has called out Declan Rice’s “overly-emotional” behaviour after his error against Spurs. Rice was seen urging his colleagues to keep their concentration following Arsenal’s opening goal at Tottenham, before committing a careless mistake just two minutes later, losing possession in a dangerous position and handing the hosts an equaliser.

The midfielder acknowledged his error and delivered a strong performance afterwards. Yet, Scholes thinks the England international still lacks the composed leadership shown by Premier League icons such as Roy Keane.

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Speaking on the Good, the Bad and the Football podcast, the Manchester United legend explained: “When Roy [Keane] was getting the team together and leading the team really well, there was a certain calmness about it. When I look at Declan Rice, he almost looks too emotional.

“He’s lively, he’s, ‘Come on! Come on! Come on!’ And then he makes his mistake. When you’re going for a league title, when you’ve got tough games, there has to be a calmness about you. I think potentially [he’s a captain]. It’s just when I look at him now, he’s so emotional.”

Scholes continued: “I don’t like all that (Rice geeing up the crowd just 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 that you don’t want to take emotion out of the game.

“And of course we don’t, we want emotion but it has to be in the right way. Scoring goals and celebrating, that’s great. But game-management in game situations, there needs to be a calmness.”

Man City charges update

A football finance expert has claimed that Manchester City could face a deduction of between 40 and 60 points if they are found guilty of the most serious allegations levelled against them. The club and the Premier League are still awaiting the verdict on 115 alleged financial breaches committed by the club between 2009 and 2018.

The hearing into City’s supposed breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations concluded in December 2024 after a 12-week tribunal, but the independent commission has yet to announce its verdict. City have denied any wrongdoing and are believed to be confident of being cleared.

Fourteen months have passed since the tribunal, with the commission still deliberating. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire estimates that around 500,000 pieces of evidence were submitted by both the defence and prosecution during the proceedings.

Maguire expects that a verdict could be delivered in the coming months. He also pointed out that previous cases involving Everton and Nottingham Forest, who received six and four-point deductions respectively for a single offence over a three-year period, indicate that City may face a significantly sterner punishment given the charges span 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 a 40 and 60-point deduction would, I think, on merit, be consistent with what we’ve seen from other decisions on logic. If they want to go further then we don’t know the severity.”

Whether such a severe penalty will be imposed is yet to be seen. It would be wise for Arsenal not to pay too much attention to it, considering it’s unclear which season any potential points deduction could affect.