Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has thrown more light on the debate of who’s the better player between Chelsea’s Reece James and Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Ferdinand has hailed both players, but admitted that James is better because of his defensive acumen.

“On the ball, I believe he [James] is equally as good as Trent, but defensively he is a notch up in one versus one situations,” Ferdinand said on BT Sport after Reece James man of the match performance against AC Milan.

“That’s the difference between them at the moment. It is a great subplot for the Premier League.

“The best players have a rivalry and they will push each other. In my eyes, Reece is ahead right now, but Trent will come out of this spell and that could change.

“He was up against Leao, and if he didn’t know, Reece James knew after 10 mins he was in for a tough night,’ said the former England defender.

“I was screaming up here, James faces him up and gets left early. Then he is worrying. But in the second half he decided he would be aggressive, didn’t let Leao behind, took the ball, then Leao knew he was in for a fight.

“He also said I’ll defend you but I’ll go the other way too.”