'I know I'm good enough against best in the world'

The young left-back made his full England debut against Croatia during the international break, before following it up with another 90 minutes in a famous victory of Spain in Seville.

Having faced the likes of Marco Asensio, Iago Aspas and Luka Modric at such an early stage of his flegdling international career and come out undefeated, Chilwell says that he has shown he can compete with the best.

"The three players you mentioned are three of the best players in the world," he insisted when the point was put to him.

"Playing against these sorts of players is trying to test myself.

"I know I'm good enough against the best in the world, but on that sort of stage you have to show it to everyone else. I felt like I did that against Spain and Croatia."

Chilwell was just as impressed with England's display against Spain as any fan, praising England's work rate and will to win.

"It's important that it was a great performance from the whole team and we fought for each other and everyone did a lot of running for each other. It was superb," he enthused.

"The second half (against Spain) was a bit more difficult but the first half. On the ball, it felt like we were really good and going forward very clinical and lightning on the counter attack, which is nice to see from the front three.

"Marcus (Rashford) and Raheem (Sterling) who played in front of me both did massive shifts defensively and helped me out a lot which I'm very thankful for. And that desire to try and get on the ball and play football, play out the back and be brave on the ball is something that we have tried to work on."

The fact that Chilwell is now a genuine contender for the England left-back spot having committed his long-term future to Leicester comes as further proof that 'Three Lions' boss Gareth Southgate will pick players who are playing and on form, rather than because of who they play for.

"Match time is massive," Chilwell admitted. "I feel like as a young player you have to play consistently because you're going to make mistakes. If you make mistakes you have to keep playing to learn from mistakes.

"Last season was a good example of that. I played the majority of the second half of the season, made mistakes, had good games and that's all part of learning as a young defender. I'm very critical of myself and I know the levels I want to achieve so I'm very hard on myself. So the staff and players are very hard on me as well, which is what I want as I want to get to as high a level as possible.

"You have to really stamp out the little mistakes if you want to. I'm very thankful to the manager at Leicester and to the staff with England, Gareth especially because he's had faith to play me in both games, which he didn't have to do. He could have played someone else. For him to show me that faith to play me for two 90 minutes, I just really wanted to repay him.

"I spoke to Gareth about the style and it is not that different to how we're trying to play at Leicester. For me at Leicester he wants the full backs to bomb on as well as defend which is what Gareth wants — so not too different. And I'm enjoying my football at the moment."