Leicester vs. Chelsea: Kepa / Soyuncu, Kante / Maddison top key clashes

3. Wilfred Ndidi vs. Chelsea’s attacking midfielders

Leicester’s theoretical Kante 2.0 has been one of the revelations of the Premier League season so far. That might sound heretical, but there’s at least some truth to the idea that he has overtaken Kante as the best defensive midfielder this season. Chelsea mostly know him as the guy who equalized at Stamford Bridge back in August.

Fortunately, this is a decent time to face Ndidi and the rest of this Leicester side.

There are two big reasons to be optimistic. The main one is that Ndidi is returning from a knee injury that kept him out for most of January. He played around an hour against West Ham last Wednesday, followed by the full match against Aston Villa on Tuesday. His surprisingly quick return from meniscus surgery was great news for Leicester, although his presence wasn’t enough to earn his side a spot in the League Cup final.

While the match against Chelsea is a big one, it’s hard to predict how many minutes Brendan Rodgers will allow Ndidi to play. One hundred and eighty minutes in the span of five days might be a bit much at this point in his recovery.

If Chelsea are lucky, he’ll be left out of the squad entirely. It’s more realistic that he’ll either be subbed off early or brought on late.

The second is that Chelsea tend to attack down the flanks rather than through the middle. Ndidi usually plays as the sole holding midfielder in a 4-1-4-1, meaning he has a lot of ground to cover in front of the back line. If Chelsea’s attackers can draw Ndidi out towards the flanks, it could open up space for Mason Mount at the top of Leicester’s box.

A fully fit Ndidi has proven that he’s able to recover and mark the man in the middle, but the half fit version could be caught out of position.

This will all depend on the Blues’ midfielders’ ability to play the ball out to the flanks and get into shooting positions. If they have the wherewithal to manipulate Ndidi’s positioning, Chelsea should be able to force some saves out of Kasper Schmeichel.

In the event that Ndidi misses out, Hamza Choudhury, Dennis Praet and Nampalys Mendy are much less scary propositions. If any of those players take the field, Chelsea should be able to dominate proceedings. Unfortunately, domination hasn’t always equaled wins this season, but at least it keeps the ball at the right end of the pitch.