Bacary Sagna accepts Manchester City will have only themselves to blame if they miss out on Champions League qualification for next season.
City are in danger of dropping out of the top four after winning only one of their last four league games. Their latest setback was a 2-2 draw with Arsenal on Sunday and their destiny is now out of their hands.
If Manchester United win their game in hand against West Ham on Tuesday, City will be pushed down to fifth before their final game of the season at Swansea.
“It’s very disappointing, especially with the way we started the season,” said the right-back. “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. We can still make it happen. We have to recover, work well during the week and take the three points against Swansea. Then we will see what happens with the other results.”
City, who opened their season with five successive wins, have been in a Champions League position almost all season.
Sagna said: “To me, we deserve it. We gave a lot. 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.”
It was also not the plan envisaged when the club appointed Pep Guardiola as their next manager.
Sagna, 33, said: “It’s a big project that we are part of. We have managed to reach the Champions League semi-final this season so that shows we are quite a good team. It’s vital for us to be part of the Champions League.”
