N’Golo Kanté vs. Manchester United: Head and shoulders above Paul Pogba

They are teammates at international level with France, but on Monday night N’Golo Kanté and Paul Pogba lined up on opposite sides of the halfway line at Stamford Bridge for the second time this season. Kanté in the royal blues of Chelsea, Pogba in the dual-tone reds of Manchester United, this time with a place in the FA Cup semifinal on the line.

Although the 1-0 scoreline isn’t as reflective of it as the 4-0 back in October was, but Chelsea once again dominated the Mourinho-led visitors. And Kanté was once again front and center of the occasion, putting in a far more box-to-box performance than is his usual remit — playing next to Matic does liberate him a bit more than playing next to Cesc Fàbregas does — and even scoring his second goal of the season. The first one, of course, came in the first match against United.

Meanwhile, the man who cost as much as three Kantés was left an ineffective bystander. Pogba and Kanté are obviously not the same type of midfielder, but the comparisons will be inevitable, especially as Pogba has yet to live up to this price tag while Kanté has far exceeded his already.

The comparisons don’t end there between Paul “hashtag-emoji” Pogba and N’Golo “I drive a Mini Cooper” Kanté. But they are a good place to start.

Meanwhile, Kanté, in his usual quiet and humble manner, reflected on his latest beautiful win in Chelsea colors.

"I'm happy to score again. I'm happy for the win and for the fans it was a very beautiful win. It was difficult, Manchester is a good team, it was a tough game but we won. When Herrera was sent off, it was more easy."

"It's a pleasure to go to the next round, hopefully we can go to the final and see who we are going to play."

-N'Golo Kanté; source: FourFourTwo

But Kanté did far more than just score tonight. If you look closely, you’ll see where Fellaini’s spirit was shattered.

Chelsea acting captain Gary Cahill paid tribute as well, something that he’s been making a habit of lately. He, like most of the rest of us, has run out of superlatives.

"He's been fantastic. You see what he did last season [for Leicester]. He has come here and he has kicked on again. He's such a humble guy off the pitch, works hard. He's a tremendous addition to the squad and he's won us the game with a goal today, which is great."

-Gary Cahill; Source: RTE

It was a hard fought battle, as many expected, but thanks in large part to Kanté, Chelsea still came out on top, as many also expected.

Player of the year? Player of the year.