Chelsea fans have every reason to be cheerful after their clubs impressive 4-0 win at home to Manchester United on Sunday afternoon. At the heart of the Chelsea team was one player, N’Golo Kante.
Not only did Kante have a great overall game, but he netted a rare goal, dancing past the United defenders and slotting past De Gea with ease. It was a goal to crown a fabulous performance for the Frenchman.
In Antonio Conte’s early games at the club, Chelsea were struggling to perform and were particularly humiliated at the Emirates Stadium, but since that heavy loss they have reverted to a 3-4-3 formation and since then they have won 3 out of 3 and not conceded a goal. Kante is not the only player who is excelling in this formation, but he is one of many now benefitting from Conte’s shrewd tactical switch.
Before the season started, the only concern about Kante was his lack of playmaking ability. In this game though he completed 88% of his passes. He completed 65 passes in total, that’s more than any other Chelsea player on the day. He attempted 3 long balls and completed 2. Offensively he made 2 key passes and defensively he was as reliable as ever, making 5 interceptions and 2 tackles. In total he was awarded an impressive 8.61 match rating from WhoScored.
Here’s how fans reacted to Kante’s performance on Twitter. The Chelsea fans were pretty pleased as you might imagine. Many opted to compare Kante’s performance to Pogba’s, the former cost less a third of what Pogba did – and after humiliating the United man on the way to scoring the 4th goal, the comparisons were inevitable.
Kanté is light years ahead of Pogba.
— Conteholic (@Conteholic) October 23, 2016
90m for Pogba vs 30m for Kante ??????? https://t.co/Pz6eFdmy0R
— RMacs (@PhillyHotspur) October 23, 2016
Remember when people said Kante joined Chelsea for money. They were right. He literally played the whole game with 100m in his pocket.
— Chelsea Action (@ChelseaAction) October 23, 2016
I can imagine Ngolo Kante getting home tonight and emptying his pockets.
Keys
Wallet
Coins
Paul Pogba.The French Scott Brown.
— Deluded Brendan (@DeludedBrendan) October 23, 2016
Kante’s added goals to his game?? That’s not fair… His awful shooting was his only achilles heel. Give other midfielders a chance. #CFC
— John Bennett (@JohnBennettBBC) October 23, 2016
Kante leaves Pogba in his wake to score his second goal ever in English football.
— Dave O’Connell (@DaveOCKOP) October 23, 2016
Chelsea will be delighted with how Kante has started his career in London. They probably cannot believe how they managed to sign him from Leicester for so little – especially when they’ve seen today Pogba’s performance, a player who cost so much more. Kante’s impact on a team is very obvious, you can see that by how not only Chelsea are doing well, but how Leicester City are seriously struggling to replace him.
