Manchester United were humiliated at Stamford Bridge on Sunday evening as a 4-0 loss was coupled with some absolutely shocking performances.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was anonymous and seemed perfectly happy about it after the game, Paul Pogba was petulant and very ineffective, and Daley Blind was all over the shop, but none had a worse 90 minutes than Chris Smalling, who wore the captain's armband on the day.
In case you need reminding, here are the "highlights" of Smalling's afternoon, where he had a part to play in all four Chelsea goals:
All four Chelsea goals go through Smalling... pic.twitter.com/rjHSG8j6UU
— 7amkickoff (@7amkickoff) October 23, 2016
A really, really bad day at the office.
Smalling has not yet hit his stride under Mourinho. Last season he could count himself unlucky to miss out on the Premier League team of the year, as despite an up-and-down season for the club as a whole, Smalling was consistently impressive.
It looked as though he was growing as a leader and had ironed the silly mistakes, that been present since he first arrived at the club in 2011, out of his game.
Stamford Bridge on Sunday was unquestionably a step-back for Smalling... But is that really a bad thing?
Yes, it was possibly his worst performance in a United shirt and he directly influenced the result for the negative, but that wasn't the first time it had happened, and the last time actually saw him improve greatly as a player.
After Manchester City away in November 2014, Chris Smalling had reached a make-or-break point in his Old Trafford career. A red-card that was seen at the time as directly costing his team the 1-0 loss was enough for many Manchester United fans to demand he had been sold. He had been pulled all over the pitch, run ragged in that first 30 minutes, and the brainless challenge while on a yellow looked like a cop-out. He simply wasn't good enough, it was said.
The same thing is happening now, as a simple twitter search of 'Chris Smalling' will tell you.
That tune quickly changed when Smalling returned after suspension, and barely put a foot wrong for the remainder of the season. By May, United had qualified for the Champions League through a fourth place finish, and Smalling had regained the trust of the Manchester United supporters.
He bounced back from the lowest point and became a better player for it, so what is to say he can't do that again?
He looked lost at Stamford Bridge. The first goal happened largely because he wanted David De Gea to come and claim a ball that was never his, and at no point did he look comfortable with Eric Bailly or Daley Blind when he moved over. Chris Smalling is a better player than that.
He has also proven his ability to bounce back from a nightmare performance before, so if Jose Mourinho has any sense he'll give Louis Van Gaal a call and ask him exactly what he said to Smalling after his shocker in the Etihad. Or maybe it's a case of showing him clips and showing him how good he is, like some women do for their friends with nice pictures of them after a break-up.
It can't get much worse, but if the reaction turns out to be half as good as the last time then it will be looked back on as a positive.
Calling for him to be sold is the definition of a knee-jerk reaction.
