Prolific Gonzalo Higuain proving to be key man in Napoli's title pursuit in Serie A

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If I told you that we began the weekend with a trio of strikers tied at the top of the scoring charts for Europe’s elite leagues, you’d probably have the names close at hand.

Cristiano Ronaldo? Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Neymar, Romelu Lukaku? Maybe Zlatan Ibrahimovic? No to all of them.

The hotshot threesome are Jonas, the deeply underrated Brazilian playmaker who is now at Benfica after laying on some wonderful football at Valencia over the years, African Footballer of the Year Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at Dortmund and Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain.

Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain has scored 18 goals this term, his his best half-season total 

But ‘Pipita’ Higuain’s figures are a little different — for a variety of reasons.

The stocky Argentinian has never scored at this rate (almost a goal per game, he has 18 this term) in his life. It’s his best half-season total.

In respect of Jonas and ‘Auba’, Higuain is the ‘net’ winner in that his total contains only one penalty.

They all count, and penalty-taking is an art, but there’s traditionally been more regard for a guy whose tally contains the fewest spot-kicks.

His first, and only, 12-yard conversion actually came last week in the 5-1 away win at Frosinone Calcio where Higuain’s brace ensured Napoli were league leaders at Serie A’s halfway stage (‘winter champions’ as some call it) for the first time since they last won the Italian title.

If memory serves me right, they had a stocky Argentinian pinched from La Liga playing for them then, too. But more of that later.

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti is an admirer of the stocky Argentinian striker

In fact, it’s going not too badly all round for the Neapolitans since Maurizio Sarri took over from Rafa Benitez.

They romped their Europa League group and face Villarreal in the knockout round next month.

Italy’s title race is, for the first time in a good while, a serious four-way proposition.

Juventus know the course, having been serial winners of late, while Roberto Mancini’s Inter Milan led until they lost back-to-back home matches.

Napoli’s other challengers are Fiorentina — dark horses but second-top scorers and with as many wins as the three teams above them.

So, all in all, Napoli facing Inter at home in the Coppa Italia quarter-final this week is a little cracker of a tie — the third time the sides have met at this stage in the last four years, the Neapolitans winning the previous two without conceding.

When Sarri’s sky blues last faced Mancini the aristocrat, blue-collar Higuain scored both in a 2-1 win which formed part of a series of power-plays.

Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was named African Player of the Year

Napoli have thrashed Lazio and AC Milan this season (5-0 and 4-0 respectively), beaten Fiorentina and also defeated champions Juve 2-1. Each test of fire has been met with asbestos.

As another measure of his importance, ‘Pipita’ Higuain got goals in all four of those big wins bar the battering of Milan at the San Siro, where he made do with an assist to make it 2-0.

On the subject of Higuain, there’s a Premier League title-chasing manager for whom Carlo Ancelotti has come along just a little too late.

The former Chelsea boss, who coincidentally was playing for the Milan side pipped to the 1990 title by Maradona and Co the last time Napoli won Serie A, will take over at Bayern Munich in the summer and has just requested that the German champions sign Higuain.

CEO Karl Heinz Rummenigge confirmed last week: ‘Higuain is a great footballer and Bayern like him. He’s on great form right now but I have my doubts whether Napoli would be willing to sell.’ 

It followed Ancelotti, in December, declaring: ‘Of all the foreign players who are in Serie A right now, Higuain is my favourite.’

It’s the kind of interest which Arsene Wenger was looking for, as peer confirmation of his instincts, but didn’t get back in 2013 when the Argentinian was leaving Real Madrid.

Underrated Brazilian playmaker Jonasr has caught the eye at Benfica this season

A deal to take Higuain to North London was almost tied up when Wenger shied away, both curious and apprehensive about why it was that no other major club, particularly Chelsea, was fighting tooth and nail for the striker.

The transfer market is a dangerous place and it’s not for Wenger to be mocked for his conservatism, albeit that the 82 goals ‘Pipita’ has scored in the subsequent two-and-a-half years would certainly not have been unwelcome at the Emirates.

The following season, Wenger told the club website: ‘We were working on two or three targets and he (Higuain) was one of them. It didn’t come off in the end but that doesn’t take anything away from his quality.

‘It’s more about timing and Napoli took advantage of that at the right moment.’

That, they most certainly did.

But Wenger wasn’t alone in having doubts. Jose Mourinho was leaving Madrid to take over at Chelsea and had no interest in taking the Argentinian with him.

At the Bernabeu, Mourinho either rotated Higuain and Karim Benzema equally — playing the two on an alternate basis or favoured the Frenchman irrespective of the fact that ‘Pipita’ was the more prolific domestically.

And there have been key moments which, unless he rectifies them, are going to scar the striker’s reputation — probably forever.

One on one against Manuel Neuer in the 2014 World Cup Final — where Argentina desperately needed to score first — he panicked, shot too early and sent the ball clumsily wide.

Argentina, and Higuain, were given a chance of redemption the following summer in the final of the Copa America against Chile and while the set-up pass from Ezequiel Lavezzi was faulty, it’s still true that he missed something of a sitter at the back post.

Another final chance squandered. Not that Higuain’s goals have gone unrewarded. Just turned 28, he has eight major trophies to his name and time to collect some more.

A Scudetto-Coppa double invoking Maradona memories, and erasing some blemishes of his own, would be a nice way to start.