Chris Smalling says Manchester United will give a "much better account" of themselves at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup quarter-final on Monday night, after being on the end of a 4-0 battering from Chelsea in West London at the end of October.

The centre-back labelled the humiliation as the club's "worst performance of the season", but since then the Reds haven't lost a Premier League match and have also collected a first major trophy under Jose Mourinho after success in the EFL Cup.

United "playing for pride, not just cup progression"

"Not only do we have to progress in this competition to play for, we also have our pride as well", Smalling told MUTV, as well as stating that United have "learnt a lot of things from that result" when referring to the previous meeting between the sides.

The 27-year-old added that the finish line is "not too far away" if they "play as well as they can", and explained that the chance of retaining the FA Cup is serving as motivation for the whole squad because it'd be "brilliant to be a part of the history".

Smalling aiming for an improved individual display

The Englishman went off injured at half-time against Fenerbaçhe in a Europa League victory just days before the league fixture against Chelsea and started the match with a lingering injury, arguably being at fault for three of the four goals shipped.

"It wasn't a game I should've played in", admitted the Greenwich-born centre-back, but insisted he's a player who "doesn't want to miss" games of that magnitude and is "always looking to push" himself as a footballer.

Manchester United are being considered as the underdogs for the highly-anticipated cup tie, despite not losing a match in so long, based on both club's current league positions and the fact that Mourinho's men had to endure a 7,000 mile-round trip to Russia this week in order to face FC Rostov.

A win for the Red Devils, though, would mean a fifth trip to Wembley Stadium in less than a year.

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Alex Turk
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