Chelsea: After N'Golo Kante's mistakes against Real Madrid, has Tuchel's 'superman' lost his touch?

This time last year, there was not one player in world football who had a more esteemed and polished reputation than master of the midfield N'Golo Kante.

Riding high amid a European run which would end in glory against Manchester City in Porto, the Chelsea midfielder was irrepressible in his usual harrying, breaking up the play and setting up match-winning attacks. For Thomas Tuchel, he was irreplaceable.

Fast-forward a year and while Kante is still capable of playing at the very top with the full trust of his manager, as shown by being given the captain's armband on Tuesday, the quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid was indicative of a season where the Frenchman's lofty standards have plateaued somewhat.

At the Bernabeu, a tenacious display in which Kante's reliable attributes of stamina, work rate and 'getting a foot in' was overshadowed by a couple of costly errors which, ultimately, settled the tie.

First, with Chelsea quite unbelievably 3-0 to the good on the night and heading to the semi-finals with 10 minutes to go, Kante with his back to goal opted for an ambitious chipped ball down the line.

He under-hit his pass and Real Madrid regained possession in Chelsea's half. Mason Mount's reaction in the centre of the pitch, arms raised in exasperation, told the story.

Within seconds, Luka Modric was wrong side of Kante and feeding Rodrygo with a pinpoint cross to salvage a route back into the tie for the home side.

Then in extra-time, Thiago Silva's pass forward was intercepted by Eduardo Camavinga - team-mates with Kante at international level - and the Chelsea skipper on the night was on his heels.

Vinicius Jr was then fed in, and his cross found Karim Benzema to pounce. Not directly Kante's fault, but still a goal which started with the cheap loss of possession in the Chelsea half.

Earlier in the game, when Chelsea were 2-0 up, Kante oddly ran over the ball and in the process lost possession to Toni Kroos. Antonio Rudiger - who was the best player on the pitch - had to put in a last-ditch tackle to stop an attempt on goal.

And Rudiger - not the shyest of characters - berated his captain. Screaming at him, almost in agony and disbelief at his error.

Since bursting onto the scene in English football in 2015, there has barely been a bad word said against Kante's name, whether it be his quality on the pitch or demeanour off it.

From spearheading Leicester's miracle title triumph in 2016 to the World Cup victory in 2018 and the Champions League winners medal three years later, Kante has won the lot. In terms of major honours, all he is missing is a European Championships triumph.

And in every trophy, he has been integral.

Yet this season, there has been a drop. Not seismic, not even enough to be relegated to the substitutes bench. But noticeable enough, exemplified on the biggest stage in the past week against Madrid.

Of course last week at Stamford Bridge, Kante was hauled off at half-time after a 45 minutes to forget for both him and the team.

Former French World Cup winner and Chelsea midfielder Emmanuel Petit elaborated on this point, implying that Kante's hard yards might be catching up with him.

'The machine isn't the same anymore. He can bring the same energy and the same display on the pitch but not every three days,' Petit said recently.

'I don't know how many miles he has run over six or seven years in England. He has probably run twice around the world! He's not immortal, the way he plays physically, you can see he's struggling.

'He's 31 years old and he's not immortal, especially in this position in the middle of the park. I wish he could take care of himself a little bit more and be a bit more selfish, maybe think "I'm not going to make this run anymore".

'His sacrifices on the pitch are so overwhelming for his team-mates all the time.'

A telling stat from Tuesday night was that Kante was not among Chelsea's top-five in terms of kilometres ran. In fact, even centre back Rudiger recorded a higher total.

Why is this? Well, the statistics illustrate that Kante has been forced to take a position further up the field to help the team, with his primary job shifting from defensive cover to box-to-box, bordering on a No 8 role.

Compared to last season in the Premier League, the Frenchman makes just 1.2 interceptions per game compared to 2.5, while his touches in the opposition box are 1.5 this season compared to 0.63 last season.

He is also making more forward passes on average every 90 minutes compared to last season - 19.1 to 16.9.

Does this suit Kante? Is switching his role to a more forward-thinking position beneficial? Are his powers waning, just slightly?

In December, during a period where Kante was out with a knee injury, Tuchel did not hide his affection for the midfielder, describing him as 'Superman.'

'He makes the difference, the guy everybody wants to have in their midfield. And we miss him, for a long time.

'Can we produce results and top performances without N'Golo? Yeah, and we've proved it already, but it's easier with him, and it's easier if he does not lack for too many weeks.'

That Superman/Mr Reliable tag might not be so accurate now. Despite his obvious attributes, Kante's mistakes in-possession cost Chelsea on Tuesday evening, no doubt.

It's too early to question Kante's wider influence on this team. After all, every players dips here and there. Time will tell whether this slight slump is temporary - or part of a bigger decline.