Clichy rallies City troops

Date published: 24 April 2015


FRENCH full-back Gael Clichy has urged his Manchester City team-mates to end the season with a flourish.

The Blues, Premier League champions last season, have struggled since the turn of the year and their title defence has faltered.

Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea are now the hot favourites to take the crown following a campaign of great consistency.

City have also enjoyed little success in cup competitions and crashed out of the Champions League at the last 16 afainst a dominant Barcelona.

Clichy, who missed last weekend’s win against West Ham through injury, is hoping to be fit to return for tomorrow evening’s home Premier League clash against Aston Villa.

He said: “Even though we can’t win anything this season, we owe it to our fans and ourselves to end on a high. Sometimes you can’t score a brilliant goal or make a match-winning pass, but the one thing I want to see is a player giving everything. You can be short on talent, but not mentality or effort and the mentality at this level has to be spot-on.”

Three points for Manchester United from Sunday’s trip to Everton would move Louis van Gaal’s side to second in the table, at least ahead of Arsenal’s kick-off against Chelsea following the action from Goodison Park.