Edinson Cavani's Continued Failure Lingers over PSG's Champions League Ambition

Paris Saint-Germain went into Tuesday's Champions League fixture with Arsenal on a mission. This is the competition where the whole club, rightly or wrongly, will be judged.

Any domestic success now, after four consecutive Ligue 1 titles, is a bonus. Their only true achievement, once you spend the sums of money they have, comes in Europe's elite club competition.

Going into the game against Arsenal—a club that has failed to progress beyond the round of 16 in any of their last six attempts—PSG had to win. The Parisians, especially after a poor start in the league, had to go out and show their domination in their group.

The biggest cloud hanging over their chances in the Champions League is Edinson Cavani. After three seasons playing beside/behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic, many observers are unconvinced he is the right man to lead this club to the next level.

After 42 seconds at the Parc des Princes, they may have been rethinking their beliefs. However, after 94 minutes of Tuesday's game, they would have been as convinced as ever.

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Before the game, PSG may have taken a 1-1 draw, but after the way the game went and their domination for huge parts, Tuesday’s draw will feel like a defeat.

"I’m not happy with the result, but I’m happy with the way we played,” manager Unai Emery told the press after the game, via the official PSG website. “We created seven clear-cut chances. Cavani? I have every confidence in him. He creates a lot of chances, and we will win with him.”

On Twitter, it seemed like the whole of Europe was in shock at what transpired. And social media is a very unforgiving place when things don't go your way.

It started so well for the Uruguayan. Serge Aurier quickly burst down the right flank in the opening attack of the game. The Ivorian swung in an inch-perfect cross and Cavani was there to beautifully glance the ball towards the far corner. There was nothing David Ospina could do.

After 34 minutes, the former Napoli hitman should have made it 2-0. Marco Verratti tried to pick out the striker, but the pass was cut out by Nacho Monreal. However, Cavani remained determined, burst onto the loose ball and pushed it past Ospina, but then, with the goal gaping, he prodded his left-foot shot wide of the near post.

It was a bad miss, but you can, to some degree, defend the forward. He was on his left foot, not his strongest, plus, he was stretching to get his foot around the ball.

That miss on its own, you could have forgiven him, but it wasn’t his last.

One thing you can never fault El Matador for is his effort. His movement is world class, as mentioned previously in this column. That was clear to see on Tuesday night, but if you can't finish, it becomes a moot point to a certain degree.

Four minutes before the break, the Uruguay international had another great chance, as Angel Di Maria chipped a delightful pass over the top of the Arsenal back four.

Cavani's movement was perfect. His run was well-timed, he broke the offside trap and skilfully brought the ball under control on his chest.

Then, in a true Cavani moment, he went for the volley and found nothing but air.

If ever there was an opportunity that completely summed up the Uruguayan’s struggles in front of goal, that was everything that is both great and poor about the forward in one move.

After the break, the game's momentum changed. Arsenal were pressing the ball better in the middle of the park. Rather than just holding on, they were pushing for an equaliser.

With just over 20 minutes to go, young Adrien Rabiot, who did impress on Tuesday, burst forward from midfield. His run was blocked, but the ball broke loose, and Cavani was on to it in a flash.

Through on goal, one-on-one against Ospina, the 29-year-old's shot was weak and poor. The Colombian stood strong, got down to the ball and made the save. Another opportunity missed from PSG's €64 million forward.

Then it happened. Mesut Ozil's low cross into the box picked out Alex Iwobi, and the young forward saw his shot excellently saved by Alphonse Areola, but PSG failed to clear the danger.

Alexis Sanchez was waiting on the edge of the box. He fired his shot low into the ground, and it flew past everyone and beat Areola into the corner.

Many will believe that the Gunners didn't deserve the equaliser, however, when you don't take your chances in front of goal, you will be punished. Arsenal did that, and you have to give them credit for hanging on.

In the last 10 minutes, Cavani had one last chance to redeem himself and steal all three points. Played through by substitute Javier Pastore, the striker was in on goal again.

He tried to go around Ospina, this time on his right foot, but the Colombian read it, got down to the ball and pushed the danger away.

"I think we deserved better tonight, so the feeling in the changing room is a bit negative," Cavani admitted after the game, via the official website. "We had chances but we didn’t win. I take responsibility for that because I only scored the one goal and those two points we dropped will be important at the end of the competition."

There is a belief that ever since he joined PSG in 2012, the impact of playing second fiddle has had a major effect on the confidence and ability of the Uruguayan.

For PSG, when counting games in the Champions League and Ligue 1, he has attempted 372 shots on goal, scoring 67 times, via WhoScored.com. That averages a goal every 5.5 shots.

That tallies up with the belief that the forward needs five or six chances to score a goal. The problem with his reputation is that playing against the weaker Ligue 1 sides, he will get those chances and end up scoring 19/20 goals a season.

That continues the almost mythical belief that he is still an elite striker.

Converting 18 per cent of your opportunities, in a club that, even when playing badly, this season has attempted 14.5 shots per game, just isn't good enough.

What is interesting when analysing the numbers on WhoScored further is that despite scoring 90 goals in 119 games for Napoli—Serie A and Champions League—his conversation rate was actually lower.

After moving from Palermo, Cavani had 548 shots for Napoli. That's a goal every six shots and a conversation rate of just 16.4 per cent.

Cavani's problem is that now, playing in Paris, the pressure is higher. PSG have greater expectations than Napoli, and with that comes the constant spotlight on your performances.

You can’t blame Emery for Cavani’s performance. PSG created the chances, and like the Spanish boss said, they did play well enough to win. However, you can point the finger to suggest that it was clear in the summer that their No. 9 wasn’t ever going to be good enough to excel at this level.

PSG have great ambitions to go on and win the Champions League. If Tuesday night is anything to go by, when it comes to the most important fixtures, Cavani just isn’t good enough to fire this club to the heights they dream of hitting.