Bacary Sagna has pledged to do his utmost to help the team as he’s called on to fill in for Laurent Koscielny as Arsenal face a centre-half crisis.

The Frenchman is suspended for the trip to Craven Cottage and with Thomas Vermaelen still injured it leaves the club with just one fit centre-half.

Sagna will slot in alongside Per Mertesacker against Fulham, and quipped he likes the position because it requires less energy than full back.

“I enjoy centre-back because, first of all, you run less,” he told the Mirror, “but you have to stay focused mentally all the time and stay strong because it’s all about winning the game.

“I enjoy playing at centre-half and will play in any position for my team. I still need to improve if I am to play there again but it was great because we didn’t concede any goals and for defenders that is the most important thing.

“I might be playing centre-back at Fulham because we have injuries and Laurent is suspended. I will do my best and try to win three points.”

When you consider that we could easily have been without Sagna – both PSG and Monaco showed real interest in him this summer – it would have left us in a real mess.

Aside from being our best right, his experience and quality means he can fill in in the middle, and let’s hope he can stick it to Berbatov and co on Saturday.

Frankly, anyone who doesn’t love Sagna is dead inside. Dead.