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‘Defensive balance will come naturally’

Bacary Sagna believes that a better balance between defence and attack will soon “come naturally” to Arsenal.

The Gunners have been in superb form up front recently, scoring 11 goals in four matches, but defensive errors have also slipped into their game.

Arsene Wenger says this is partly linked to the team’s attacking philosophy and Sagna agrees with his manager.

 “We’re very open and sometimes we should care more about keeping our shape, but it’s always been the Arsenal style,” he told Arsenal Player.

“We manage to score many goals, but defensively it’s difficult sometimes.

“[The balance between defence and attack] will come naturally. We’ll get more confident, scoring goals and everyone will want to defend more.”

Sagna was encouraged by the team’s defensive resolve against Stoke City, and believes it bodes well for the rest of the campaign.

“Keeping a clean sheet will always bring us points,” he said. “We’d like to have three points every game, but even taking one point will be important at the end of the season.

“We know it’s going to be hard to reach the target [of a Champions League place], but it’s not impossible and every team will [drop] points - we’ve seen that with Chelsea lately.”