Loftus-Cheek: Chelsea youth can now see a pathway to first team

Standing on the brink of a new era at Chelsea, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is ready to play a leading role after several false dawns and says young players at the club can now see a pathway to the first team.

Todd Boehly, the American businessman, experienced an early taste of the melodrama that awaits him during Saturday's 2-2 draw with Wolves.

But as the lead member of the consortium set to buy the club for £4.25bn slunk out of Stamford Bridge's West Stand in shock at how two points had been thrown away, he may well have taken solace in the performance of Chelsea's marauding midfield powerhouse.

It would be an alarming collapse were Boehly's first season in charge not to involve competing in the Champions League - and Wednesday's encounter at Leeds, live on Sky Sports, offers another chance for Chelsea to take a significant stride towards achieving this objective.

For Loftus-Cheek, the team's collective wobble has come at a time when he has been shifting through the gears. Denied the opener against Wolves by a marginal VAR call for offside, his overall display - his eighth start in the last 11 games - added to his recent resurgence.

"I've been really happy with how I've played personally," Loftus-Cheek exclusively tells Sky Sports. "I had a bit of a niggle with my Achilles mid-season which stunted my progress a bit but I came back from that and I'm enjoying my football again.

"I'm really happy to have played in some big games in the Champions League and in the FA Cup. I want to keep this going and hopefully we'll get some big results soon. I'm taking on completely different responsibilities now.

"Coming into Chelsea this season, I didn't know what to expect positionally. I've always seen myself as a midfielder but someone who