Roy Hodgson has refused to draw comparisons between Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Ryan Sessegnon following Crystal Palace’s win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.

The two promising youngsters clashed in the Premier League for the first time as Jeffrey Schlupp and Wilfried Zaha scored the decisive goals on opening day.

While the former England boss played down similarities between them, he spoke highly of Wan-Bissaka – despite only working with him for under a year.

Hodgson said: “I haven’t seen enough of Sessegnon, I don’t make comparisons anyway. They are both very, very good players.

“I’m sure Slavisa [Jokanovic] is very happy to have Sessegnon in his ranks just as I am happy to have Aaron in mine.

“He’s bright in that he’s very receptive to information. He’s very serious about his football. I think I’ve seen him get better over the last six months.

“They [Fulham] had a lot of technical players on the field, a lot of pace, they’ve come off a fantastic season, they’re very used to each other, the way they play, and yet I don’t think either Aaron or Patrick [van Aanholt] had any serious problems dealing with it.”

Wan-Bissaka featured seven times for Palace in the Premier League last season, which saw them finish 11th, playing 90 minutes each time all but once.

His debut came in a 1-0 defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur while he was thrown into the deep end against Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United.

Hodgson admitted he hasn’t followed the youngster’s career closely but is keen for him improve as the 20-year-old fights to keep the starting right back spot from Joel Ward and Martin Kelly.

The Palace boss added: “I think his opening games were Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham – sort of ones where you are almost putting him to sink or swim and he certainly learned to swim very quickly.

“I haven’t followed his career through the under-23s where he came up and started to work with me around the middle of last season.

“He was playing right back for the under-23s and of course we just took that at face value.”