The former France international spent seven years with the Gunners between 2007 and 2014 before making the move to the Etihad Stadium, where he played for three seasons.
This year’s campaign sees the two sides competing at the top of the table, with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal looking to dethrone Pep Guardiola’s side who have won four of the last five titles.
Wednesday night sees the first league meeting of the season between the teams, with Arsenal sitting X points ahead of the Blues.
While Arsenal have the advantage, Sagna knows City will be eager to chase our title rivals down.
“There’s going to be tension until the end of the season because City won’t give up, they will try their best to come back and catch up Arsenal,” he said.
“That starts with this game. It will be a tight game and very important, mostly for City because it could be a clincher for Arsenal so City know they need to win.
“There will be a lot of pressure but City will be confident because they are used to playing in important matches. I expect the game to have a lot of intensity.”
Arsenal’s squad is the youngest in the Premier League with an average age of 24.2, while many of the key players in the side are yet to reach their 24th birthday.
With that in mind, Sagna believes Arsenal could be a challenger for the game’s biggest trophies for years to come.
He said: “I believe Arsenal could become City’s main rivals due to the quality of the coaches first and the stability of the clubs.
“Mikel has managed to bring back the quality of Arsenal and everyone is committed to their aims. Due to the age of Arsenal’s squad, if they manage to stay together for three, four years they could challenge for a lot of trophies.
“City have quality players and will maybe have to renew the squad because some of the players are a bit older than what they used to be.”
While we remain in contention for the title, City’s form has not been perfect in 2022/23.
Sagna’s theory on why that is the case is clear.
“City have been caught a lot on the counter attack,” he stated.
“They have controlled the games but teams have not been scared to come forward on the counter attack and have managed to score that way. All the teams will have seen how other teams have been successful and used that plan.
“City need to find the right balance and they seem to be struggling with some mistakes that were not committed in the past.
“Now they need to focus on finishing games with a clean sheet so I am looking forward to seeing how they react.”
Chasing down Arsenal starts with Wednesday’s meeting. It could be one of the games of the season in the Premier League and Sagna is excited to watch it play out.
Having played in many games of this magnitude himself, Sagna knows that a quick start will be crucial.
“I believe the first 15 minutes will set the tempo of the game so the team that plays their football and creates rhythm in that time will have an advantage,” he said.
“It’s up to Arsenal to start that way because they are at home but City will try to keep the ball early on. Mentality and decision making at the start of the game will be a big part in the result.”
Now living in Dubai, Sagna is an avid watcher of the Premier League.
In particular, he keeps across Arsenal’s progress and has picked out the Gunners who will have the most impact on Wednesday.
“Saka will be Arsenal’s crucial player, as usual,” he said.
“Him and Martinelli are very fast players and that causes an issue for defenders.
“The defence is very important too because they have to deal with Haaland and Mahrez. If these guys are in form on the day, I think it will be difficult for any defence. Arsenal have to be really good defensively.
“Martin Odegaard will play a big part because he is an organiser of the game and the leader of the club.”
ARSENAL V CITY
City travel to Arsenal on Wednesday for a 19:30 kick-off and you can follow the game across mancity.com and our official app.
We will start live updates at 17:30 on our Matchday Centre and that will run throughout the evening.
Our Matchday Live programme will begin shortly before team news arrives at 18:30. Natalie Pike will be in the studio with Steve Howey and Paul Dickov to give you a City-centric view on events in North London.
During the game, Alistair Mann and Michael Brown will talk you through proceedings with our radio commentary offering.
Afterwards, we will bring you all the reaction from North London before short highlights and extended highlights are available from midnight.
CITY+ subscribers can watch the entire 90 minutes back from midnight.
