{"id":318236,"date":"2026-04-14T01:04:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=318236"},"modified":"2026-04-14T01:04:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:34:54","slug":"roy-keane-points-finger-at-declan-rice-as-arsenal-wobble-in-title-race-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/14\/roy-keane-points-finger-at-declan-rice-as-arsenal-wobble-in-title-race-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Roy Keane points finger at Declan Rice as Arsenal wobble in title race | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Could Declan Rice be doing more for Arsenal within the title race? (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roy Keane says Declan Rice isn’t showing enough leadership within the Arsenal team because the Premier League leaders wobble within the title race.<\/p>\n

The Gunners are still six points clear at the highest of the table, but confidence has been rocked after a nasty weekend for them.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta\u2019s men were beaten 2-1 at home by Bournemouth on Saturday lunchtime after which watched Manchester City romp to a 3-0 win at Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

City are the team six points behind them, with a game in hand and with Arsenal going to the Etihad on Sunday in a mammoth fixture.<\/p>\n

The house team on the Emirates underperformed against the Cherries and while he isn’t criticising how he has played, Keane feels Rice needs to lift the degrees of his teammates.<\/p>\n

The Manchester United legend feels Arsenal are suffering with nerves because the title race hots up and Rice is someone who needs to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

\u2018That is where Rice has to point out a bit more leadership skills, I do know he\u2019s doing his best out on the pitch but he\u2019s got to pay money for people,\u2019 Keane said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

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Roy Keane warns Arsenal will probably be scarred in the event that they lose the title race (Picture: Sky Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018That was a nervous performance, but if you happen to\u2019re going to play top level sport\u2026it\u2019s okay being nervous, it\u2019s the way you take care of it. It\u2019s your decision making and body language from certain players.<\/p>\n

\u2018People like Rice, we\u2019re talking about leadership skills, they\u2019ve got to get a grip of individuals.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Irishman, who knows plenty about winning Premier League title races as a midfielder, says edgy Arsenal performances are all the way down to the players, slightly than manager Mikel Arteta who’s coming under some pressure.<\/p>\n

\u2018At Arsenal quite a lot of the feedback the previous couple of days, individuals are taking a look at Arteta, the fans are nervous. No, that is on the players,\u2019 Keane said. <\/p>\n

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Mikel Arteta had a frustrating afternoon against Bournemouth (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018The fans aren\u2019t going to do it for you, the manager can only achieve this much. He\u2019s got an excellent squad together, you\u2019re in an ideal position, don’t let this slip.<\/p>\n

\u2018At this moment in time they\u2019re letting the nerves get the higher of them but you\u2019ve got to take care of that and that\u2019s just footballing decisions.<\/p>\n

\u2018And don\u2019t go on an ego trip to play 50 passes, just hit the goal man, because if we\u2019re nervous I\u2019d slightly be nervous up there than nervous and us attempting to be too clever and provides the ball away cheaply.<\/p>\n

\u2018They [Bournemouth] got confidence out of Arsenal\u2019s nervousness. They\u2019ve got to get a grip of that or it can slip by.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Rice has already played 46 games for Arsenal this season (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keane picked out Rice for instance of an Arsenal star who needs to point out leadership, however it is a job for all the squad, as he tells them that losing this title race will leave a scar.<\/p>\n

\u2018That is on the players now,\u2019 Keane continued. \u2018We\u2019ll discover about what type of characters these Arsenal lads are over the following three, 4, five weeks, what they\u2019re manufactured from. <\/p>\n

\u2018Challenge one another, not being best mates with everybody, falling out with one another. In the event that they slip up here, they\u2019ll never forgive themselves.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u2018It\u2019s an enormous punch within the face\u2019<\/em><\/h2>\n

Speaking after the surprise loss to Andoni Iraola\u2019s side, Arteta said: \u2018We were very removed from the extent that we were shown. That\u2019s for certain, especially in certain areas which might be critical if you play against a team like Bournemouth. They were very clear. But, again, I don\u2019t wish to criticise any player, especially here, publicly.\u2019<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018It\u2019s extremely disappointing; it\u2019s an enormous punch within the face, but what I said to the boys, now it\u2019s about how we react to that, since it\u2019s game on, it\u2019s going to require now an enormous spirit, quite a lot of fight and really clear how we\u2019re going to approach that. <\/p>\n

\u2018There are not any grey areas; we’re in, we’re out, and we should be very, very, very strong and determined to approach it another way than we\u2019ve done today, especially when the sport wasn\u2019t going our way.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Could Declan Rice be doing more for Arsenal within the title race? (Picture: Getty Images) Roy Keane says Declan Rice isn’t showing enough leadership within the Arsenal team because the Premier League leaders wobble within the title race. The Gunners are still six points clear at the highest of the table, but confidence has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":318237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[2605,12012,3989,5479,14207,1159,997,12013,6544,1148,16568],"class_list":["post-318236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-arsenal","tag-declan","tag-finger","tag-football","tag-keane","tag-points","tag-race","tag-rice","tag-roy","tag-title","tag-wobble"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318239,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318236\/revisions\/318239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}