With Chelsea hosting Liverpool in the Friday night game, it is going to be a battle of two heavyweights. The Blues are unbeaten in the league so far and have been a great watch under Antonio Conte.
The Italian certainly has revived the form of two key players for Chelsea, Diego Costa and Eden Hazard but another player in the team has been just as important. N’Golo Kante hasn’t picked up rave reviews yet but he has quietly gone about his work and certainly will be a big player in the game against the Reds.
In fact, the Frenchman might be the most important player for the Blues in this big battle.
The ability to disrupt the midfield is key to the game
While people have pointed out about Chelsea’s never say die attitude in attack and how Hazard is back to his best, Kante’s ability in midfield will be important against Klopp’s side. Liverpool don’t play with a legitimate defensive midfielder in the side, the job is given to Jordan Henderson and this could be the undoing for the Reds.
Kante is the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League and he, along with Nemanja Matic, could really shut the Liverpool midfield out of the game. The Reds normally line up with Georginio Wijnaldum and Adam Lallana supporting Henderson and Kante could easily take them out of the game.
Apart from the tackling ability of the 25-year-old Frenchman, his interceptions and tracking will be the keys to Chelsea’s midfield dominance. Closing down on Henderson would ensure that Liverpool do not have an outlet from midfield and that would be a great loss for the Reds.
Henderson was one player that was consistently linking up with the attack in the win over Leicester but Kante would certainly close that avenue down. The former Leicester City midfielder averages 3.3 tackles per game so far this season with 1.8 interceptions and has played every minute of the Premier League.
Even Cesar Azpilicueta shed light on Kante’s brilliance in midfield as he was quoted on the Chelsea website after the win against West Ham.
“N’Golo is a big help to the whole team, he covers a lot of space and makes really good interceptions,” Azpilicueta told the club’s official website. “He’s clever with the ball and makes good passes so I think he will be a key player for us.”
Liverpool have not played against a side as energetic and tactically sound as Conte’s men. This will be a great duel in terms of two footballing philosophies, Klopp and Conte and will surely be a tight game to call. But with Kante holding the key to midfield domination, he could be leading the Blues to an important victory over the Reds.