Manchester United players celebrate during the 3-0 win over Fulham

Smalling: The mood is as good as ever

Sunday 10 February 2019 07:00

Chris Smalling made an impressive return to first-team action in Saturday's 3-0 win at Fulham and the defender insists his Manchester United team-mates are "relishing" the tough run of fixtures ahead.

Our no.12 made his first appearance in two months, with his previous outing also against Fulham in a 4-1 win at Old Trafford in December, and helped the Reds to keep a clean sheet against his former club. 

Paul Pogba's double, either side of a wonderful Anthony Martial solo strike, gave the Reds a comfortable victory at Craven Cottage which took Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side into the top four. And Smalling was pleased with the way United won after a tough opening to the game.

Chris Smalling warms up before his return to action .

"The first 10 minutes was quite chaotic with the wind, the pitch wasn’t great and with [Aleksandar] Mitrovic and his style. I had to wake up and get focussed really quickly but, yes, it was nice to come back and get involved with the team, given the form that we are in," he told MUTV.

"We needed to ride out that first 10 minutes and then every time we got the ball down and broke those lines, you could see Anthony [Martial] Paul [Pogba], Rom [Romelu Lukaku] it looked like we could score every time. I thought we created some great chances."

'POGBA HAS GOT EVERYTHING' 

Paul grabbed the headlines, and our Man of the Match award, after another stellar display - and Smalling is not surprised that the Frenchman is now displaying his immense talent. The centre-back also had some positive words about Pogba's fellow countryman and goalscorer, Martial. 

"Paul has got everything, hasn’t he? And he is showcasing that," Chris continued. "A big reason why we are in this form we are in is down to Paul, because he's not just scoring goals, he is assisting goals and he is controlling games as well, so we are very lucky to have a player like him in our team.

"Especially at the start of the game, we wanted to isolate Anthony [Martial] against the full-back [Denis Odoi] and, after the joy he was getting in the first 10 minutes, we just wanted to feed him as soon as [we could] and you could see the quality he has got."

Smalling: It was nice to be back Video

Smalling: It was nice to be back

Chris Smalling discusses his return to the team, our goalscorers, the away support and more with Stewart Gardner...

'THE FANS MAKE AWAY GAMES FEEL LIKE HOME MATCHES' 

Smalling played for Fulham between 2008 and 2010 and he admitted that he enjoyed going back to Craven Cottage, especially when the United fans were in fine voice for the entire game.  

"I like to come back to Fulham but, as an away supporter, to be able to get that whole stand, it almost feels like a home game when the fans are at it from the first to the 90th minute. As an away team, it is great to be able to come to an away ground and play in front of them."

The win over Fulham means that the Reds have now leapfrogged Chelsea into fourth place in the Premier League, at least until the Blues play at Manchester City on Sunday, and Smalling believes it is testament to the form we have shown of late.

"We all knew the task we had in front of us and we all thought it would be tough and we still have a lot to do," Chris added. "But I think the fact that we have been able to get those points and catch up so quickly is full credit to the squad and how well we have been playing, but now we are in fourth it is ours to lose."

Smalling joins his United team-mates in thanking the vocal away fans at Craven Cottage.

United now approach a crucial period in the season, with Paris St-Germain visiting Old Trafford on Tuesday evening for the first leg of our UEFA Champions League last-16 tie before the Reds travel back to London to face Chelsea in the Emirates FA Cup and then host fierce rivals Liverpool six days later.

Smalling insists he and his team-mates are well aware of the tests that lie ahead and are "relishing" the challenge, with the mood "as good as ever". 

He added: "We all knew the run of fixtures that we have coming up and we are all relishing that. We knew today it was about character and, if we can get up for PSG and Liverpool, it was about coming here and making sure we got the three points. The mood going into PSG is as good as ever."

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