You can’t deny Kante’s class is crystal clear
N’GOLO KANTE has an astonishing record since he arrived in English football in August, 2015.
In total, the midfielder has now played 60 Premier League matches for Chelsea and Leicester City, and finished on the losing side just six times.
He already has one title medal and seems to be on his way to a second. If that happens, he’ll be the first player ever to win back-to-back Premier League crowns with different clubs.
Since he made his £5.6 million move from Caen, Kante has won 42 of those 60 League games. That’s a 70% win percentage and far and away the best of any player in the country over that period.
And the effect of taking the 25-year-old out of a team is crystal clear.
With Kante in the line-up, Leicester and Chelsea have collected a combined total of 138 points from 60 matches.
Without him over the same 20 months, the two clubs have taken just 74 points from 62 games.
His effectiveness as a ball-winning, possessionretaining midfielder has spawned a cult following.
According to one joke currently doing the rounds, 70% of the earth’s surface is covered in water and the rest is covered by N’Golo Kante.
There’s another quip which points out that Kante’s heat map for the season has accelerated global warming by 10 years.
Kante was the only member of their title-winning squad that the Foxes lost in the summer, but the repercussions have been devastating.
As they prepare to face Swansea today, they are uncomfortably close to the bottom of the table.
Danny Drinkwater looks an ordinay player without Kante at his side, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy have lost their supply line, and Wes Morgan and Robert Huth are exposed without the protection service he offered. Meanwhile Antonio Conte is reaping the benefit. With 14 matches to go, Chelsea already have nine more points than they had at the end of last season.
David Luiz and Marcos Alonso were also bought last summer, but Kante has been the key difference between the under-performing team of last season and this term’s runaway leaders.
They used to call it the Claude Makelele role at Stamford Bridge because no one else did it better.
Not any more.