The two things that nearly everyone agrees on are he is dashingly swoonsome and that is irrelevant. Beyond that there is constant debate about the usefulness of a high-scoring striker who will attempt to deliver a decisive performance at the Emirates on Wednesday. We are talking – before anyone launches into another dissertation on Olivier Giroud – about Edinson Cavani.
It is easy to forget that Cavani opened the scoring when Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain drew 1-1 at Parc des Princes in September. Because what really sticks in the mind from that game are the four clear chances that the striker managed to miss. After netting with a smart header in the first minute he lapsed into a bathetic farce, once firing wide after rounding the goalkeeper, twice shooting straight at David Ospina when clean through and another time killing the ball immaculately on his chest six yards from goal before falling backwards as if he had trodden on a rollerskate.
That all amounted to an unnecessary reminder that despite an admirable work ethic and a prolific strike rate Cavani retains a goofy streak, one that has a tendency to surface in big games. He has happy memories of two previous visits to London, which both saw PSG eliminate Chelsea, but he may also have flashbacks to the first of those, in March 2015, when he ran around Thibaut Courtois at Stamford Bridge before missing the target.
Cavani goes into the Arsenal game under pressure to avoid another ill-timed off day. Not merely because his misses in Paris are among the reasons why his team will probably need to win at the Emirates to finish top of the group, but because PSG invested serious hopes in him last summer, when they made him their first-choice striker rather than splashing out on a replacement for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Cavani had waited three years for that opportunity. Before this season he had spent most of the time since his arrival from Napoli in 2013 as a reasonably effective but frequently frustrated wide man, contributing goals at a decent rate but mainly serving Ibrahimovic, PSG’s centre-lord.
No one has ever doubted Cavani’s endeavour or the fact that he can be wickedly sharp at times – but consistently lethal in big games? Trusting in that seemed a risk for a club that has set a first-ever place in the Champions League semi-finals as a minimum target for this season. The misses against Arsenal made that faith seem almost reckless.
For a player prone to losses of confidence the forecast was dark. So his display in his next league match was strong and uplifting, as he scored four in 45 minutes in the 6-0 victory at Caen. His form since then has been bright. He has struck nine goals in his last 10 matches, although amid that run there was also the preposterous flubbing of on open goal from three yards against Marseille in what is always one of the biggest matches of PSG’s domestic season. That game ended 0-0, highlighting the dependency on Cavani: when he misfires, PSG are often blunt.
That is not exactly Cavani’s fault. Midfielders should have scored more regardless of Cavani, and Blaise Matuidi and Ángel Di María have been particularly substandard this season. But it also true that Cavani’s role places even more onus on him to score than there was on Ibrahimovic. The Swede scored abundantly but was more than a scorer. He also foraged deep and brought others into play. Cavani, faster and more inclined to dart behind defenders, is intended more as a specialist marksman. If PSG fail to supply him, or if he is in hapless mode, they struggle to penetrate.
Neither of the two attackers whom PSG bought in the summer, Hatem Ben Arfa and Jesé, are strikers per se, and Unai Emery has not given either of them much action in any position, anyway. The only alternative to Cavani, then, is Jean-Kévin Augustin, a 19-year-old who has shown huge promise off the bench but does not look ready for full-time centre-forward duty just yet. To win at Arsenal, then, PSG are most likely going to need Cavani to settle the argument.
