Sagna: Arsenal play too much football

BACARY SAGNA feels Arsenal must sometimes “cut out the football” as they aim to secure the points needed to keep their Premier League title bid alive.

The battle-weary and injury-hit Gunners must lift themselves for the final five matches of the domestic campaign having seen their European dreams shattered after a comprehensive defeat to a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona in the Nou Camp.

Arsenal head to north London rivals Tottenham next Wednesday night, in a match rescheduled due to Spurs’ involvement in the FA Cup semi-final, with little margin for error given how tight it is at the top of the table, where currently just three points separating the leading sides.

Arsene Wenger’s men – set to be without inspirational skipper Cesc Fabregas for the rest of the season because of a hairline fracture in his leg – left it late to beat 10-man Wolves with a stoppage-time winner from Nicklas Bendtner last weekend, while in their previous match Birmingham snatched a goal with almost the final kick at St Andrew’s to cost the Gunners two precious points.

Full-back Sagna feels the team must learn from such incidents to make sure they do not waste opportunities to close out games and get the needed result.

“Sometimes I think we play too much,” the 27-year-old France international said. “We just want to do that and do not think about what is good for us — sometimes we just need to cut out the football, stop playing for a bit and just consider what will help us achieve what we want.”

Sagna maintains there is still plenty of life left in the title race, despite Arsenal needing both Manchester United and leaders Chelsea to drop points if they are to finish top come May 9.

“Football changes very quickly,” the defender said. “Two months ago we were 10 points behind and came back quickly – we did it once, we can do it again. We are confident that we will be back and they will drop points.

“However, we just want to win every game until the end of the season and not think about the other teams.

“We wanted to play in every game with 100%, and we gave that against Barcelona,” he said. “Barcelona were just better than us, now we have to play again and try to be better than the other teams. We just want to play game after game and are still confident we can win something this season.”

Bentdner, meanwhile, believes picking up three points against Tottenham would be ‘‘massive’’ for the Gunners.

“It would mean a lot to us because Tottenham are our main rivals,’’ the Dane said. “Beating them at their ground and maybe going second in the League, depending on other results, would be a massive thing for us.

“We only have the League to concentrate on now and we need to get five wins out of the last five games.’’

The fixture against Spurs will be Arsenal’s first game since their European exit on Tuesday, meaning the Gunners will have eight days rest ahead of tie. Bendtner believes this will give his side the edge.

“It is an advantage because we get time to recover from some hard games we have played,’’ he said.

“You go on a high and play a certain type of football (in the Champions League) and then we get into the Premier League, so it’s good that we have time to have it flattened out.’’

Midfielder Alex Song, meanwhile, will be assessed ahead of the Spurs game, having missed the trip to Spain because of a knee problem. Russian winger Andrey Arshavin is expected back from his calf injury for the visit of Manchester City in two weeks, while Holland forward Robin van Persie could yet feature in the final couple of matches as he steps up recovery from some six months out with ankle ligament damage.