Making a Case for N'Golo Kante to Win the PFA Player of the Year Award

If Eden Hazard has been the player that has won Chelsea football matches this season, N'Golo Kante is the man who has stopped them losing.

Without the Frenchman in their side after 32 games last term, Chelsea had already lost 10 times and shipped 42 goals in the process. Eventual champions Leicester City, Kante's then employers, were top of the table having lost just three matches.

The fortunes of Chelsea with, and Leicester without, Kante this season have undergone a complete shift. Now it's the Foxes fighting for a top-10 finish, while the Blues battle it out with Tottenham Hotspur for the right to be crowned champions.

Chelsea have lost half the number of the games in this campaign as they did at this same stage in 2015/16. Their goals against column—currently 27—represents a marked improvement as well. If we look at 12th-placed Leicester, they've shipped 53 goals already (it was 31 this time last year).

With 10 other players to consider, not to mention managerial changes at both clubs, there are plenty of other factors we must take into account when we look at those stats. For one, Chelsea have benefited largely from having their big stars returning to top form, not to mention Antonio Conte's changes revitalising the squad.

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But the fact remains that the plight of Leicester and Chelsea's renaissance does have one thing in common more so than most: the absence and arrival of Kante.

We can't put it down to mere coincidence.

It says so much about this diminutive talent and what he offers that means we can draw a bold line in the sand and cast such aspersions. In Leicester's case, logic suggests the miracle of 2016 couldn't have happened again even had Kante remained. And with Chelsea returning with renewed vigour under Conte, they would have been a different prospect.

The presence of Kante has amplified it all, however. That's the magic of what he has achieved in two seasons in the English game. His impact has been such that, without him, we can identify the breaking point for Chelsea and Leicester.

It's the butterfly effect in motion on a football pitch. When Kante makes a tackle in midfield, there's a disaster happening elsewhere. This term that has been wherever the Foxes have travelled as, while he's been winning balls for Chelsea, it's the champions who have been the biggest losers.

For Chelsea, it's often meant opponents bracing themselves for the tidal wave that is about to hit them. The common theme has been Kante breaking up play before releasing those more gifted in possession and Conte's men breaking at pace to punish those standing before them.

	Games	League Position	W	L	D	F	A	Pts
Chelsea (2015/16)	32	10th	11	10	11	49	42	44
Leicester (2016/17	32	12th	10	15	7	41	53	37

Time and again we've seen it. Kante's 110 tackles in 31 Premier League outings is proof enough; a point backed up by the fact he has averaged 2.4 interceptions per game for Chelsea this season.

That's more tackles than any other player in Conte's squad. Indeed, it's more than Gary Cahill and David Luiz combined, who share a total of 80 tackles between them. The closest player to Kante in those stakes is Cesar Azpilicueta, who has averaged 2.1 tackles per game this season compared to his team-mate's 3.5.

That isn't just good; it's incredible. It's the side of the game that, for once, shows number crunching can truly back up what the eyes are telling us. The impression is that Kante is everywhere on the pitch—note Hazard suggested only last month on Chelsea TV that he plays with a "twin" brother—and when we consider just how busy he is and the action he sees, the statistics prove it.

That's Player of the Year material right there. When we identify the qualities of those who win the personal accolades every season, we look for the individual factors that show the difference they have made.

It's why Luiz—as brilliant as he has been since returning to west London—has been overlooked by his peers.

	Games	League position	W	L	D	F	A	Pts
Chelsea (2016/17)	32	1st	24	5	3	65	27	75
Leicester (2015/16)	32	1st	20	3	9	55	31	69

The Brazilian has been a changed man under Conte, yet it's Conte he has to thank for it more so than anything he has done himself. The manager has engineered a system that means Luiz is protected and is allowed to play football in his own unique style.

Take him out of that comfort zone and the same problems that have seen him ridiculed at times in his career will rear their head. It happened in the EFL Cup against West Ham United when Luiz was given a ragged time of it against Michail Antonio when played on the right of Chelsea’s back three, not the centre. And most recently against Manchester United, Marcus Rashford did the same at Old Trafford when Luiz was exposed.

Luiz needs a system to be built around him. When we think of Kante, he is the system. He makes Chelsea the fluid defensive unit we have seen—a perspective that is strengthened by the contrasts we have seen from last year to the present.

Even Zlatan Ibrahimovic agrees with that notion, as he recently explained to the Telegraph (h/t Metro's Coral Barry) when discussing his PFA Player of the Year vote.

"

I think a player like that [Kante] would do well anywhere.

In his case he gets a lot of credit for what he is doing. But normally players like that who run a lot, I remember [Blaise] Matuidi at PSG, they don’t get the credit they deserve because they are more important than people think they are.

He [Kante] would play good in any team.

"

A 17-goal swing in Chelsea's favour has played no small part in propelling them to the top of the table. And for an idea of how vital that has been, when we consider that Conte's side have won 10 Premier League games by a single goal, those 30 points would be severely diluted were the Blues not so resolute.

Chelsea have their confidence back. They can shut out games in the way they did against Manchester City recently at Stamford Bridge; they can also attack with a verve that only comes when players aren't looking over their shoulder at what's behind them.

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Hazard, Diego Costa, Pedro and Willian are playing their football further up the pitch these days because Kante allows them to. The support of Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses as wing-backs is another contributor we can't ignore, although the solid core Kante has given Chelsea has been the foundation they crave.

What player has transformed a team quite like Kante has Chelsea this season? We know the answer: no one. Kante is competing with his team-mate Hazard, Harry Kane, Alexis Sanchez, Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku for the Player of the Year gong, and none of them have quite achieved success in the way he has.

There hasn't been another player like Kante in 2016/17.