The Gunners believe the Frenchman will snub their final £80,000-a-week offer and look to move to the likes of Manchester City or Chelsea in search of a bumper pay package

Arsenal fear Bacary Sagna will snub their final contract offer and join a Premier League rival on a free transfer, Goal understands.

Senior Gunners officials had been given indications that Sagna would sign a two-year extension, with the option of a third year, last week.

However, a formal agreement failed to materialise and Arsenal believe one of their longest-serving players could be about to leave in search of one mega payday.

Manchester City and Chelsea are understood to be leading the race to capture the right-back, with both clubs ready to hand him the £100,000-a-week deal he is after.

Sagna also has offers on the table from Liverpool and a string of Continental clubs led by Paris Saint-Germain but is now expected to plump for the most sizeable Premier League deal.

Losing Sagna would be a considerable blow for Arsenal, who made the Frenchman a take-it-or-leave-it offer worth more than £80,000-a-week at the end of April in a new attempt to keep him at the club.

It was an improvement on the £75,000-a-week deal already on the table, with both offers spread over two years with the option of a third year, and the Gunners hierarchy were hopeful that it would be enough for Sagna to snub other offers and commit to the club.

The right-back is believed to be settled with his family in London, but Arsenal have been reluctant to meet Sagna’s demands. They do not believe it fits within their salary model to pay a full-back £100,000-a-week, which would make him the second-best paid player at the club behind Mesut Ozil, who earns £130,000-a-week.

Arsene Wenger has been heavily involved in his fellow Frenchman’s contract talks despite failing to formalise his own two-year contract extension beyond this season.

Speaking recently of Sagna, be said: “We know what we want from him, he knows what is on the table and that’s where we are. The ball is not in our camp anymore. It is in his camp and he needs to come back to us.”

The defender, who turned 31 in February, is able to leave Emirates Stadium on a free in the summer and sign a pre-contract agreement with a new club.

Wenger has always been keen to hold onto Sagna, who has been a key figure for Arsenal this season and offers experience and versatility that would not be easy to replace.

The Gunners have looked closely at replacement right-backs in the last year, with Frankfurt’s Sebastian Jung and Toulouse’s Serge Aurier currently top of their target list should Sagna decide to leave.

The former Reds defender was stunned to see his old club surrender a three-goal lead against Crystal Palace and blamed the capitulation on the club’s suspect defence

Jamie Carragher slammed Liverpool’s defending after his former club threw away a three-goal lead at Crystal Palace.

Liverpool capitulated in the final 11 minutes of Monday’s clash at Selhurst Park to put Manchester City firmly in the driving seat for the Premier League title and severely dent their own chances of winning a first English top-flight crown since 1990.

Joe Allen, Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez all found the net to give Brendan Rodgers’ men a 3-0 lead, but Palace launched an incredible fightback in the closing stages, Damien Delaney pulling one back before a double from substitute Dwight Gayle ensured a share of the spoils.

And former centre-back Carragher, who retired last season after a 16-year senior career with the Merseyside club, was quick to place the blame at the feet of Liverpool’s defenders for the collapse.

“Defensively they’re not up to being Premier League champions,” television pundit Carragher said on Sky Sports.

“(Centre-back Mamadou) Sakho makes you nervous. They always concede together. It’s not good enough.

“That final 20 minutes was unacceptable. They concede too many goals.

“The back four and defensive side of this team have shown they can’t cope with pressure. They’re not leaders.

“You can’t keep inviting pressure. They got out of jail at Norwich (in a 3-2 win) the other week and haven’t learned their lesson; It’s gone on and on over the past few months.

“Well tonight they haven’t and have thrown away the Premier League title.”

The draw leaves Liverpool a point clear of City at the top, but Manuel Pellegrini’s men will go two points ahead if they win their game in hand against Aston Villa on Wednesday.

Liverpool’s final game of the season comes on Sunday versus Newcastle United, while City will look to wrap up a second title in three seasons at the Etihad Stadium by beating West Ham.

The Reds threw away a three-goal lead at Selhurst Park on Monday to virtually end their hopes of pipping Manchester City to the Premier League title

Brendan Rodgers admits his players were “devastated” after Monday’s 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace but backs Liverpool to recover from their shock capitulation.

Liverpool, who were aiming to put a significant dent in Manchester City’s superior goal difference, held a 3-0 lead heading into the final 12 minutes at Selhurst Park on Monday evening.

However, a Damien Delaney strike and a Dwight Gayle double sealed a stunning comeback to virtually end Liverpool’s hopes of winning their first league title since 1990.

“It was hugely disappointing,” Rodgers told reporters. “For 78 minutes, we were outstanding and did everything that we would want to do.We looked solid defensively, didn’t have many scares, controlled the ball, ended up getting three goals and looked like we could get one or two more.

“But I think we got carried away; thought we could maybe get one or two more and lost the defensive structure to our game. To concede the three goals at the end was hugely disappointing, having worked so hard to get 3-0 up.

“Tonight was about winning the game, so when we stabilised that at half-time and got the structure back into our game, we came out in the second half and got two quick goals – which put us in total control with half an hour to go.

“We created other chances and looked like we could score, but we just didn’t manage the game then. At 3-0, we gave them a little sniff when they were not in the game at all. Obviously, they have got some good players that can punish you.

“It’s something that we’ll improve on for next season; last season we needed to get better and we’ve got better this year.”

Liverpool have conceded 49 goals in the Premier League this season – the most out of any team in the top five – and Rodgers concedes that his side’s defensive fragility needs to be addressed.

“It feels like a loss when you’re 3-0 up and concede goals like that. As you can imagine, [the dressing room] is very quiet and the players are devastated really because, for 78 minutes, we were outstanding; some of our football and, importantly, our defending, was good,” said the Liverpool manager.

“But in those last 12 minutes, we just didn’t defend with any sort of cohesion and ended up conceding really poor goals.

“The first goal, they played it short – the guy has got a shot in far too easy, it takes a deflection but we should still do better.

“The second goal comes from a corner; we break away and play a square pass on the edge of the box. That’s just decision-making. All of a sudden they skip away, they have quick players – Gayle and Yannick Bolasie break forward, young Thomas Ince is on.

“They got the second goal and for the third, they have momentum then. We were about to make a change and put another defender on and they got the third. It was that crazy spell that we will need to be better in for the future.

“It’s an area that we know we need to be better at. We’ve improved a lot in many aspects of our game and that will be an area I’m sure we’ll look at – and nobody more so than myself.”