Manchester United showing proves Arsenal's Bacary Sagna deserves a new deal

Bacary Sagna

While club and player are still believed to be at loggerheads over a prospective new deal, Bacary Sagna refuses to let contractual negotiations in the way of a title challenge and continues to play a key role.

Sagna has been the bastion of loyalty to this Arsenal side, having rejected the overtures of Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid when it would have been so easy to jump ship having seen so many others follow a well-trodden path out of the club.

Despite the club’s decline from the considerable heights of ‘Invincible’ status, the Frenchman has stuck with the club through thick and thin and will be suitably rewarded should the Gunners hold their nerve in the home run and secure a first Premier League title in 10 years.

It is the least he deserves for his service to Arsenal and while off-the-field politics at boardroom level dictate that Sagna should not be offered a long-term extension, something the 31-year-old covets and clearly feels he warrants, with the club likely to compromise on their one-year deals for over-thirties by offering two-year terms.

But either way, it has done little to affect the consistency in performance of Sagna who has recovered from an alarming blip last season, owing more to his recovery from two broken legs in the 2011/2012 campaign, to inspire Arsenal’s renewed defensive prowess, the cornerstone of Arsene Wenger’s side’s pursuit of top spot.

Having been hit for five in one of two anomalies this season at Liverpool on Saturday, Arsenal consolidated with a 0-0 draw against Manchester United.

While the quality going forwards remains a concern for the Gunners, the same cannot be said of their defensive offerings aside from the drubbings at Manchester City (6-3) and Liverpool (5-1).

Sagna was key to the manner in which Arsenal bounced back from such a crushing defeat to restore some sort of pride, effectively nullifying the threat of Juan Mata, who was strangely deployed in a left-wing position, with the tricky Adnan Januzaj on the bench.

Looking at the teamsheet, Sagna must surely have relished his chances up against the Spaniard, reflected in the fact he got forward at will, judging by his action areas.

Sagna mainly operated in an advanced right-sided role (24.59%) as he sought to push his side on and, with Tomas Rosicky regularly darting inside to orchestrate play in the middle, the Frenchman was tasked with providing an outlet on the right for an increasingly narrow formation.

Bacary Sagna’s Action Areas vs Man Utd

But he was unable to provide the service a frustrated and evidently suffering Olivier Giroud required to inflict any real damage on the United goal. All four of his crosses – which each came in the second period – failed to find a team-mate and United were able to deal with the speculative balls into their area.

Sagna’s crosses vs Man Utd

The accuracy of his passing was particularly pleasing and helped keep Arsenal’s momentum chugging rather than steaming along with an 86% success rate as he completed 42 of his 49 passes in total.

Sagna completed 86% of his passes

Ultimately, the reason Wenger and his negotiators remain fixated on sorting out a new deal for one of their longest-serving players is due to his defensive dependability and he showed it in abundance against United, restricting them to few chances.

Indeed former Gunner Robin Van Persie was the only player to go close to threatening Wojciech Szczesny’s clean sheet with efforts in either half. Sagna could not be blamed for either.

He was a rock in a backline which had been shaken badly at Anfield just four days previously and with Manchester United sensing blood in their tormented hosts, it required a steely resistance from the backline to fend off a side equally in wallowing in the abyss.

Sagna’s resolute edge was evident in his tackling success, winning four of the six he attempted and his duel with fellow native Patrice Evra was a particular highlight on the right flank, with the Arsenal man largely coming out on top.

He won two out of his three tackles against Evra when he bombed into the Gunners’ defensive territory and also won an outstanding eight of his nine aerial duels, with Nemanja Vidic the only man to get the better of Sagna for the entirety of the contest.

Sagna completed four out of six attempted tackles, all in his own half

The recurring battle between the two full-backs continued in this statistic, with Sagna winning each of the four aerial duels vied for. Throw in seven clearances to boot – only Koscielny (12) and Gibbs (9) completed more – and the tough-tackling, heart-on-the-sleeve wearing Sagna looked like a man on a mission.

The only blot on the copybook for him was an 87th-minute yellow card, which threatened to undo all his good work throughout.

Instead, it further emphasised the type of desire sadly in short supply at Anfield just a matter of days before and should have acted as added evidence to support Sagna’s pleas for a prolonged stay to remain at the Emirates Stadium and seal the sort of silverware he could have experienced elsewhere.

His loyalty to the cause is enough to suggest Wenger et al must give in to his longer-term thinking but on Wednesday night’s evidence, there is a surplus of quality which lives on in the Gunners stalwart.