Former Arsenal and England forward Ian Wright has claimed that Chelsea were wrong to send Ruben Loftus-Cheek on loan during the summer.

Despite selling Nemanja Matic to Manchester United before the start of the season, Chelsea boss Antonio Conte decided that there was no space in his first-team squad for Loftus-Cheek, who joined Crystal Palace on loan.

The 21-year-old made his England debut against Germany on Friday night, and was handed the Man-of-the-Match award following an impressive performance in the goalless draw.

Chelsea signed Tiemoue Bakayoko from AS Monaco during the summer to boost their midfield options, but Wright has insisted that Loftus-Cheek would have been a better bet for the Premier League champions.

Wright told ITV Sport:

"I watched Bakayoko the other day up front or playing further forward against Manchester United and he never done anything in that game that made me think that he's a better player than Loftus-Cheek.

"Now I'm not knocking Chelsea because Chelsea can do whatever they want but the fact is that surely you've got to give the guy a chance. I've seen him and he's better than Bakayoko for me."

Loftus-Cheek, who is valued at £4.5m by transfermarkt.co.uk, has made eight first-team appearances for Palace this season.

The powerful midfielder came through the youth system at Chelsea, and has made 32 appearances for the Blues over the last three years.

https://video.footballfancast.com/video-2015/chelsea-quotes.mp4