Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek appreciates his time with today's FA Cup semifinal opponents Crystal Palace.

He spent the 2017/18 season on loan with Crystal Palace and it was a year which had a big impact on his career, helping him to continue his development at an important stage while establishing himself in the Premier League.

"I'd say it was the year I matured the most as a footballer," he told chelseafc.com. "That's when I made the step to feeling like a fully-fledged Premier League footballer and I broke into the England team and went to the World Cup off the back of that. So I really felt like that was my breakthrough season and it gave me huge confidence.

"After being here working with the senior team from the age of 17 until 20, training with these fantastic players, I felt like I still needed another experience, a next step, and Palace was definitely the right place for me. It's where I learned to fight, which is important in football, because it wasn't all sunshine, we weren't winning every week."

With a number of players from his time at Selhurst Park still with the Eagles, as well as knowing defenders Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen from their time together at Chelsea and Fulham respectively, there will be plenty of familiar faces among the opposition ranks, even if he is looking to burst their bubble at Wembley.

"I'm still friends with the people I played with there, so I'm happy for Palace. It's fantastic to see what they're doing at the moment, they're in really good form.

"I'm really good friends with both the centre-backs. I played with Marc here in pre-season a lot. He's a fantastic player, which you can see, he's starting every week at the back and I've seen him pop up with a few goals as well from corners. Joa was one of our better players at Fulham last season and they're creating a nice partnership at Palace, but we hope to disrupt that today."