He casts not so much a long shadow, as a towering benchmark. At Paris Saint-Germain, Zlatan Ibrahimovic's outsized poster used to glower over visitors to the Parc des Princes and came to be recognised as a guarantee of domestic success. With Ibrahimovic, PSG were almost always at the summit of their league.
Now, just over a third of the way through the first, post-Ibrahimovic campaign of PSG's era of super wealth, they sit two places shy of the top of Ligue 1. That is the first indication that standards may have dropped since the giant, Midas-touch Swede left for Manchester United, with a trail of titles and individual records in his wake. It is not so much what Ibrahimovic has gone on to do at Manchester United – a good start, then a slump – that makes Parisians long for his leadership and consistent excellence, but the realisation that his like are hard to find.
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It is not so much the goals. At his current rate, Edinson Cavani, the striker whose obligation to act as a foil for Ibrahimovic caused the Uruguayan some consternation in the past, ought to register, at centre-forward, something resembling the sort of goals-per-season total that propelled the Swede to the top of the French domestic scoring charts three times in the past for years. Cavani has 11 from 11 appearances in Ligue 1, and four in the Uefa Champions League, in which PSG take on Arsenal on Wednesday in London with the leadership of the group at stake for both clubs.
But Cavani could use some more reliable foils of his own. Hatem Ben Arfa, brought in post-Ibra after a season of wizardry at Nice, has hit one of those stubbornly ineffective spells which have punctured a career that has veered between brilliance and bolshiness. His manager, Unai Emery, singled him out as he spoke ahead of the meeting with Arsenal.
“Certain players arrive and integrate more quickly than others,” said Emery, who has had his differences with Ben Arfa. “At Nice he showed his great qualities. But this is a different team. We have talked, and he knows there are aspects of his game he needs to improve.”
The firm indication from Emery, who also joined PSG in the summer, is that Ben Arfa must continue to expect less than 90 minutes at a time to make his case for a more senior role. He has started just two of his league games so far, and the winger is yet to score his first PSG goal.
One newcomer who has got off the mark, with his first strike for PSG in Saturday's 2-0 win against Nantes, is Jese, who had waited nine games for the breakthrough. The 23-year-old Spaniard, signed from Real Madrid amid great expectations, has suffered some fitness setbacks and is yet to gain the full confidence of his Spanish compatriot, Emery.
“It’s a question of making use of 20 or 25 minutes from the bench to push for more time,” said Emery. Neither Ben Arfa or Jese look likely imminently to displace Lucas Moura, the swift Brazilian, from Emery’s first-choice attack.
Even without Ibrahimovic, or indeed David Luiz, who left for Chelsea, PSG still have a squad abundantly staffed to win the French title for a fifth successive year. In Angel di Maria, who has some fitness issue to overcome to make the starting XI on Wednesday, Cavani is served by the league’s finest provider of decisive passes.
But Emery’s task goes beyond maintaining a status quo that has winning the league title second-nature to PSG, beneficiaries of one of European football’s most generous patrons, their Qatari owners. He was asked to replace Laurent Blanc because of his expertise in Europe, endorsed by the three successive Europa League titles he won while at Sevilla.
Emery has never won a top-flight domestic league title in a dozen years as senior manager. Ibrahimovic, famously, finished top of whatever league – Dutch, Italian, Spanish, French – he was employed in for 12 of the past 13 years. Yet he was a lucky charm only so far: He has never won a European club trophy. “The Champions League is what defines the status of a club,” Emery said.
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