Real Madrid had one of the worst performance ever in their match against Valencia where they were beaten 2-1 away.
It was also Zinedine Zidane’s first loss since returning to the Bernabeu – he guided Los Blancos to wins from his first two games.
But goals from Goncalo Guedes and Ezequiel Garay ensured that the Frenchman’s perfect start ended rather prematurely.
Defeat away to Valencia means Real have now lost nine La Liga games and are 13 points behind leaders Barcelona – with almost no hope of winning any major trophies come May.
That’s something that was almost unthinkable at the beginning of the season, just months after they won the Champions League.
Valencia offered a constant threat on the counter as they resigned Madrid to another disappointing defeat.
Marcelo was particularly exposed by the pace that the hosts carried in attack – but it’s not his poor defending that was the main talking point.
In the second half, the Brazilian produced a rather shameless dive, as he hit the deck after absolutely no contact at all.
That really is ridiculous. Marcelo was rightly booked for simulation and will now miss Real’s next game, at home to Eibar on Saturday.
Judging by his performance, it seems he won’t be a massive loss for Zidane anyway.
Ahead of the trip to Valencia, the boss decided to shake up his team by dropping the likes of Isco and Gareth Bale to the bench – and he will now have to do the same in a few days time.
Lucas Vazquez, Casemiro and Marco Asensio all started, while Keylor Navas replaced Luca Zidane in goal.
While Real scraped to victory against Huesca at the weekend, they were exposed on Wednesday night and deserved to slump to another loss.
And although none of the players covered themselves in glory, Marcelo will likely take a brunt of the criticism – not least for his awful dive.