I Kante believe how good he is

CHELSEA manager Antonio Conte believes N’Golo Kante is one of the reasons his side are SMILES better then the rest.

The midfield dynamo – a £30million signing from champions Leicester – has been the heartbeat of a side who are marching towards the title.

Conte (below) was a tough-tackling player in the middle of the park himself and has huge respect for the selfless work Kante does.

The Chelsea boss said: “I was good but he does it better – and smiles!”

The France international, 25, is a leading contender for the Player of the Year award after settling perfectly into life at Stamford Bridge.

And a potential battle between him and Paul Pogba in tomorrow night’s FA Cup Quarter-Final between Chelsea and Manchester United could be key to deciding the tie.

On Kante’s chances of winning end-of-season accolades, Conte said: “It is difficult to answer if he should be Player of the Year but I hope in my heart it will be a Chelsea player because it means that, probably, we have won the league.

“However, in this league there are a lot of great players in the other teams.”

One thing that is for sure is that Kante will not give United any space tomorrow.

Conte played in similar style with Juventus.

He said: “N’Golo is stronger than me. I scored more goals but in the other aspects there is no contest. I think it’s important to have this type of player if we want to win.

“You need not only great talent but players who run a lot during a game.

“Kante is a really good guy. He always has a smile on his face. He’s fantastic, you try to talk with him and he’s always smiling.

“During training sessions he works a lot but always with a smile.”

Conte, like the rest of us, is relishing the prospect of Kante versus Pogba tomorrow.

He said: “Two great players but so very different.”

The Italian witnessed Pogba grow as a player at Juventus after he had left Manchester United the first time around and added: “I don’t like to talk about the players of other teams but I have had the opportunity in the past to train Paul for many years. We are talking about a top player.

“We don’t have a plan to curb his influence but we are working to try to find the right solution for the whole team, not only for Paul Pogba. “It was the same against West Ham, when we played against Andy Carroll and there were questions about whether we would try and stop him.

“Paul is a really good player and we must pay great attention to him, above all when he arrives in the box but we must think about the whole Manchester United team. “They are very

strong.” Chelsea v Man United, Tomorrow, 8pm, BBC1