Arsenal right-back Bacary Sagna believes players should be more protected in the English Premier League as he understands Abou Diaby’s reaction on Saturday.

Sent off against Manchester City for clashing with Pablo Zabaleta, the Frenchman explained how it is sometimes normal to react in a bad way after a nasty tackle as he however admitted that the red card affected the Gunners who conceded four goals in the second half. On the game, Sagna was speechless as he said it’s hard to take such a result, a game similar to the Emirates defeat against Tottenham in November.

On the performance of referee Phil Dowd, the 27-year old was surprised at the two penalty decisions and how Joey Barton was allowed to tackle Abou Diaby as he called for more protection in the future.

The Gunners will be back in the action on Saturday as they host Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates. Wolves caused a major upset hours after Arsenal lost to Newcastle by beating leaders Manchester United by two goals to one.

On Saturday, Sagna said:

[What to say after such a game?] I can’t talk. We were four nil up at half time and drew at the end. Everyone is gutted with the way we lost it because to me it was not a penalty, he gave two. We had problems against Tottenham and today again so it’s football but it’s hard to take.

I don’t know [what Abou Diaby said], I didn’t see him. Sometimes you can have a bad reaction, I know what I’m talking about, but it played a big part because we were ten against eleven in the second half, was not easy, but again, it would not happen if we were more protected because it was a bad tackle and no-one said anything, not even a foul.