Mathieu Debuchy admits that Bacary Sagna is a hard act to follow - but he intends to give it his best shot.

The Arsenal right back pipped his compatriot to a place in France's starting line-up at this year's World Cup, and this weekend they will be on opposite sides when Sagna's new club, Manchester City, visit Emirates Stadium in the Premier League.

Sagna played 284 times for the Gunners but Debuchy has made a strong start to his own Arsenal career and is looking forward to Saturday.

"Bacary is a good friend of mine, we have been in touch for many years now as we have been playing together in the national French team," Debuchy told Arsenal.com.

"I’ve known him for a long time, in spite of the competition we have a very good relationship"

"I like him a lot, we have a very good relationship and I wish him the best with Manchester City. I know he is going to perform well there, good luck to him, except on Saturday!

"I’ve known him for a long time, in spite of the competition we have a very good relationship, everything is cool between us.

"It hasn’t been easy to replace Bacary because he performed very well here. Our games are quite similar and to take over from him is not going to be easy, but I am going to give my best to the club.

"The Man City match is important for Arsenal," added Debuchy. "Now that we are done with international games we want to start on a positive note and we want to win that game.

"We know it is going to be a difficult game, it is always difficult to play against Manchester City but we want to perform well on Saturday and win."

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