Plenty of usĀ felt for young Chris Smalling on Monday night. He had a brilliant game up against Didier Drogba – and so it’s good to see him refusing to dwell on the freakish misfortune that saw him score that own goal that ultimately decided the derby against Chelsea.

You can’t wish for a better place to make your first [Premier League] start. Obviously you look at their team sheet and it’s full of world-class players and I think we more than held our own and were unlucky in the end.

When you see you’re up against Drogba, who is one of the best strikers in the world right now, it’s what you play football for when you’re young. definitely enjoyed it out there and I thought it was a good team performance and hopefully there will be more to come for me in the league.

I’ve played a few games in Europe and hopefully I can push on now.