GAEL CLICHY knows all about being part of something Invincible.
By MARTIN BLACKBURN
And the Manchester City ace has given the thumbs up to the club’s ‘Perfect 10’ strikeforce of Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez.
The champions have won all the matches in which Roberto Mancini has started with the Argentinian pals.
Clichy, who was part of the famous Arsenal team which went through 2003-04 unbeaten, is impressed.
City will need their deadly duo to be at their best when Borussia Dortmund head to the Etihad tonight.
He said: “I didn’t know that stat before but I hope it continues. They seem to like playing together.
“They get on well on and off the pitch and they’re two of four great strikers that we have at City.
“Hopefully they can stay on top form for the club, give their best and carry on scoring goals because that’s what we need.
“But they are capable of that — we’re not worried about them.”
It was a Champions League match against German opposition last year when Tevez looked to have burned his bridges with the club completely.
His refusal to warm up against Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena led to Mancini vowing he would not play for the club again.
Yet 12 months on, it is almost like it never happened with Tevez back as City’s headline act for the right reasons.
Clichy, 27, said: “He has been our best player so far this season.
“He’s scored goals, worked really hard. He’s just a great player.
“What happened in Munich, and after, is nothing to do with me. It was between him and the boss.
“It’s all sorted now. Carlos in top form would be a great player for any team. Let’s hope he can carry on scoring.
“The passion he has for the game, the way he presses defenders, lifts the team — we need a player like this so well done Carlos.
“We want players who bring something extra and he does that. He can make a big difference for us this season.”
City need him to do that in the Champions League after losing a thrilling opener at Real Madrid.
It turns up the heat on Mancini’s men for the fixtures against Dortmund and Ajax.
Clichy said: “It was 2-1 with five minutes left in the Bernabeu so you expect a team like us to win the game. We didn’t so it was disappointing. But it’s better to look for positives and the fact we went to Madrid and caused trouble for them away from home.
“Hopefully we can learn from this and become stronger. I’m not saying it will be easy against Ajax and Dortmund but we know we have the quality to do it.”
City thought they were in the ‘Group of Death’ last year — only to be handed an even more tricky task this time.
Yet Clichy, an unused Gunners sub in the 2006 final defeat to Barcelona, believes facing the top clubs is the best way to become a Euro force.
He said: “We’ve got four champions in our group, it’s a really difficult group but we are the champions of England.
“You want to play against the best teams all the way through. It’s a good way of challenging yourselves, finding out where we are.
“We feel we’re progressing from last season. That was a tough group but this one is probably a bit harder. If we play the way we know we can, everything is possible.”
A Champions League winner’s medal remains missing from Clichy’s collection. He has been playing in the competition since he joined the Gunners as a teen and came close to glory in ’06.
He said: “Barcelona are the best in the world — but it’s not always the best who wins it.
“Chelsea did not deserve to win it but they had something special, they had commitment. They defended well and scored when they had to.”
