Manchester City 2 Arsenal 2: 'Champions League dilemma is our fault,' says City's Bacary Sagna

Qualification now no longer in Etihad club's hands

Bacary Sagna challenges Aaron Ramsey for the ball (Getty)

Bacary Sagna admits the Manchester City players have only themselves to blame after losing the power to decide their own fate in the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

City could only draw with Arsenal at the Etihad on Sunday and if Manchester United now win their two remaining games - at West Ham on Tuesday night and at home to Bournemouth on Sunday - Pep Guardiola will inherit a squad heading for Thursday night action. Possibly not what the Spaniard thought he was signing up for.

“It’s very disappointing, especially the way we started the season,” Sagna said after the match. “But we are to blame. We had everything in our hands to be the best and I believe if we play like we did against Arsenal we are the best team. But we have to play like this all season. But this is the past now and we have to keep our heads up and get the three points against Swansea.”

The full-back will be watching events unfold on Tuesday night at Upton Park hoping the final game at the famous old ground lifts the home team. “I am sure they are going to be giving the maximum. West Ham are a quality team, especially at home. They managed to beat the big teams there this season, they have done well at home so if they can win the game it will be good for us.”

The Frenchman admits that not being in the Champions League is not worth contemplating for a club like City. Indeed, his outgoing manager Manuel Pellegrini said last weekend it would be a “disaster”. “It’s a big project that we are part of,” Sagna said. “We have managed to reach the semi-final this season so that shows we are quite a good team. So it’s vital for us to be part of the Champions League. To me we deserve it. Of course, we are not perfect, of course, we could have done better, but to me we deserve to be in the Champions League places.”

Sagna admitted that the players were tired in the wake of the exertions in Europe in midweek when they only arrived back in Manchester in the early hours of Friday. “We started really well, but physically we dropped off after an hour,” he said. “We had the game on Wednesday against Real Madrid and that’s why we dropped physically.

Olivier Giroud heads in Arsenal's first goal of the game (Getty)

“We wanted to win for the manager as well. It was his last home game and he has done a lot for the club, managed to come and give the team some trophies.”

Sagna also defender his team-mate Wilfried Bony who has been criticised and was booed at the Eithad. “He can be a key player for the team. He was very unlucky [hitting the bar] and he’s had an unlucky season. He’s giving the maximum in training and trying to improve. If he had scored with that volley it would have been different for him.”