Chelsea: 5 key takeaways from Tuesday’s win over Norwich

2. Chelsea sorely miss N’Golo Kante when he’s not playing

Kante once again did not feature against Norwich, also missing the Crystal Palace and Sheffield United games after hurting his hamstring in the 3-0 win over Watford.

These past two games, Lampard has started Jorginho in his place, who has not been able to fill the same role as the Frenchman. His passing range is excellent, but the defensive side of his game is lacking.

Watching him try to run back on an opposition counterattack is agonizing, as opposed to Kante, who has a superhuman recovery speed and simply never stops running.

Whenever the Blues gave the ball away, which Jorginho himself did a number of times on Tuesday, the Italian seemed like he could not keep up with the pace of the game.

Jorginho’s recent disappointing performances highlight just how important Kante is to Chelsea, which is often overlooked, hence the rumors of him leaving in the summer. If Lampard knows what he’s doing, they should be just rumors and nothing more.

Kante does all of the dirty work in the midfield so the creative midfielders can focus on building attacks instead of always tracking back, whereas with Jorginho the others have to put in more of a shift just to cover for his defensive impediments.

He was played as a more attacking No. 8 for a few seasons, but now Lampard has moved him back to the holding midfielder role, where he is far more comfortable and more useful to the team.

Kante has a chance to make the United game at the weekend, but if he’s not 100% fit he should be rested to focus on the crucial league game against Liverpool the following Wednesday.

In a very tight run-in where every point matters, Kante is there to make sure unnecessary ones don’t slip away, and he’s very good at what he does.