Arsenal is running out of time to catch runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool, but their former defender Bacary Sagna isn’t drawing a line under this season just yet.
Former Arsenal star Bacary Sagna believes the Gunners can still catch Liverpool in the Premier League championship race… and predicts Paris Saint-Germain will defeat Arne Slot’s team in Europe.
Liverpool leads the Premier League by 13 points over Arsenal, despite having played one more game than their nearest opponents. They also have the advantage over PSG in the Champions League as Harvey Elliott’s late goal handed them a 1-0 first-leg victory at the Parc des Princes.
Sagna was a member of an Arsenal team who squandered a commanding lead to lose the league title in 2007-08, despite the fact that their lead was only five points when striker Eduardo suffered an injury. He has also been knocked out of the Champions League by Ligue 1 opponents, Monaco, during Pep Guardiola’s first season in charge of Manchester City.
It would take a complete collapse for Liverpool to fall behind in both tournaments. Sagna’s forecast is bold, especially given that Slot’s club has only lost once in the league this season, but he has made his point.
“The season is not over,” Sagna told talkSPORT. “It will be difficult to catch Liverpool, but when I look at the game they played against Paris Saint Germain, I wonder whether they will have periods when they don’t perform as well, as they did the other night.
Perhaps this is where Arsenal can catch up and close the gap. The gap is large presently, but it may be narrowed. You never know.
“I believe Paris has a decent chance of progressing to the Champions League stage, thus the atmosphere will be down. Liverpool is currently flying, undoubtedly due to their recent results, but you never know. Football can go very fast and in a single instant they can lose a tiny advantage they’re having today”
Sagna isn’t the only one who refuses to accept Liverpool’s Champions League tie as a foregone conclusion. PSG had 27 shots to Liverpool’s two in the first leg, and only a series of great stops from goalkeeper Alisson kept them at bay until Elliott’s goal.
“We have nothing to lose,” the French club’s manager, Luis Enrique, told TNT Sports after the first leg. “Liverpool is the best team in Europe [this] year and today they created one or two chances maximum and we created a lot. I’m very proud of my players, my team, the supporters, and i think that’s the key moving forward.”
Midfielder Vitinha was even more confident, telling Canal+: “We’re going to win there. With the match we played, the victory was more than deserved. Like at the start of the season, we had tons of opportunities, but we failed to score.”
