Chelsea face Patrick Vieira's Crystal Palace this afternoon at Selhurst Park, with the Blues attempting to bridge the sixteen point gap that currently stands between themselves and Pep Guardiola's league leaders Manchester City.
Despite triumph in the FIFA Club World Cup last week in Abu Dhabi against Palmeiras, the Blues' Premier League form has been far from ideal since the turn of the new year.
In their last five league encounters, Chelsea have only managed one victory, which was against Antonio Conte's Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, so manager Thomas Tuchel will be hoping that his club can develop domestic consistency going into the business end of the season.
One man who will be a pivotal player for the west Londoners is former Leicester City midfielder N'golo Kante.
Since arriving at the club back in 2016 for a fee believed to be in the region of £32 million, the French international has been a shining light and despite the fact that he's been deployed in multiple positions under various managers, Kante has maintained outstanding levels of consistency.
But whilst his influence on the pitch is impressive, arguably one of the most noticeable aspects with Kante is his friendly nature.
Controversy is never associated with Kante and it's very clear that he's a big member of the Chelsea dressing room, with teammate Mason Mount reiterating the love that all the players have for him via Instagram.
When asked the question "Do you love Kante?", Mount simply replied with "Everybody loves N'golo".
It will be interesting to see if Kante starts in today's fixture and usually when he performs at a strong level, the Blues have a fair amount of control of the game.
