N'Golo Kante has been mostly either a box-to-box or ball-winning midfielder under his various managers, but Frank Lampard is doing something a little different.

Against Lille on Tuesday evening Kante performed both these roles, while also starring as auxiliary winger, a play-maker, a nuisance, the furthest man forward, the instigator of attacks and, to avoid going over the word count, simply the best player on the pitch by a mile.

Maurizio Sarri was heavily criticised for refusing to play Kante as a holding midfield player but he was right in thinking that, even in a midfield two, Kante’s game is about far more than sitting, destroying and defending. Why make him patrol one small area when he is capable of covering the entire pitch?

Kante's inexhaustable engine affords a manager the opportunity to play a less mobile, more creative player in midfield next to him. Danny Drinkwater benefited enormously at Leicester, as did Cesc Fabregas in Antonio Conte's Chelsea team, while Paul Pogba was able to experiment in the France World Cup winning squad knowing that his team-mate was there to bail him out.

Chelsea either play a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, with Kante partnering Jorginho in the two or operating as the attacking midfielder in a three, but in the latter he seems to have something of a free role in Lampard's system. Against Lille he wandered everywhere as though instructed to follow the play and create overloads in different parts of the pitch, rather than stick to one position.