Declan Rice called out as Paul Scholes says 'I didn't like' actions after Tottenham win

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Paul Scholes has slammed Declan Rice for being overly emotional in Arsenal's North London Derby victory over Tottenham . Rice, 27, endured a strange afternoon in Mikel Arteta's side 4-1 away victory over Spurs.

He covered every blade of grass, but was at fault for Randal Kolo Muani's equaliser goal and also gave the ball away when the Frenchman scored again, only for the strike to be disallowed. Rice's individual error for the Tottenham goal looked particularly questionable, as he was seen telling his team-mates to focus , moments before he lost the ball.

Few have questioned the England international since his £105million move from West Ham United . However, Scholes tore into the midfielder for letting the emotions of the derby affect his focus.

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On the Good, the Bad and the Football podcast , Scholes and his ex-Manchester United team-mate Nicky Butt took a deep dive into Rice's display. The latter said Rice could be a big leader within the north Londoners, but still lacks the leadership traits of Premier League legends like Roy Keane .

In response, Scholes said: "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 then turned specifically to the moment Rice told his team-mates to keep their focus, shortly after Eberechi Eze opened the scoring, only for the midfielder to be dispossessed by Kolo Muani.

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Scholes said: "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.

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"Scoring goals and celebrating, that’s great. But game-management in game situations, there needs to be a calmness.”

Instead of criticising Rice's error, Arteta chose to focus on Rice's reaction to his slip-up. The Arsenal boss said: "I said at half-time: we carry on playing, with the attitude like Declan has done today.

"When he made an error, the way he played after. That's attitude, personality and courage to stand up in a difficult moment. Attitude, how you approach things.

"You can feel sorry for yourself. You can look at: 'oh look at this stage'. But when you're kids, you dream to play these kind of games. You recognise the opportunity that we are lucky to be where they are.”

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