Suddenly, a familiar, rather foreboding feeling takes over the Emirates Stadium.
A sinking feeling, the kind that makes you prepare for the worst.
Arsenal’s value is being questioned again ahead of a week that could define their season following Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa.
There is a genuine basis for those emerging doubts. We’ve seen this movie before.
The capitulation at the end of last season that cost Mikel Arteta’s side the Premier League title will haunt the club until they finally win the competition for the first time since 2004.
Similarly, during the 2021/22 season, they were bumped into a Champions League spot that for so long seemed within reach. The fact that it was Tottenham who got ahead of them didn’t help matters.
Mikel Arteta knows how vital this week is for Arsenal when it comes to defining their season
The Gunners suffered a shock defeat to Aston Villa which dented their Premier League chances.
The devastation of those failures persists. They are difficult to get rid of.
So here we are again, it’s crunch time and those lingering fears are resurfacing.
Will lightning strike three times? Is history repeating itself? Can Arsenal handle the heat? Are they bottlers? We’re about to find out.
The stakes couldn’t be higher: a place in the Champions League final four awaits them if they can triumph here in Munich on Wednesday.
On Saturday they travel to Wolves, where anything short of a win would deal a potentially fatal blow to their title ambitions.
But first things first: here in Bavaria the Gunners have the opportunity to silence those who have already branded them as eternal drowners.
Arteta stoically urged his team to seize that opportunity on Wednesday night.
“One performance puts us in the semi-final of the Champions League,” said the Spaniard.
‘All the preparation has been to achieve it. We have earned it. We have earned it for ten months and everything we did last season, to begin our path in the Champions League after so many years.
Harry Kane and company want to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League at the expense of Arsenal
Declan Rice looks distraught after last 2-0 defeat to Villa and old fears are resurfacing
‘Tomorrow we have an incredible opportunity to make it happen.
“Regardless of the result against Villa, it will have no impact on what happens here.
“Refocus and begin to build confidence and understanding for the performance we are going to have to do to beat them and advance to the playoffs.”
Of course, exorcising the April curse that has characterized his previous two campaigns will be a difficult task.
Bayern Munich. Harry Kane. The Allianz-Arena. It makes your heart beat.
With a 2-2 draw, Arsenal will enter the red cauldron on Wednesday night with faith.
Then they should do it. Before Sunday’s defeat, Arsenal had won 31 of a possible 33 points in the Premier League.
“We have to take advantage of the defeat against Villa as a reaction on the biggest stage to show everyone what we are capable of,” said Leandro Trossard.
In addition, Bayern will be without key players such as Kinglsey Coman and Serge Gnabry due to injury, while Alphonse Davies is suspended.
Arteta admits he cannot control whether players remember the failures of recent years
Arsenal would face Manchester City or Real Madrid if they beat Bayern Munich.
However, Arteta will not need to be reminded that this is the month in which his team has spectacularly unraveled in two consecutive seasons.
In 2022, they lost five of their last 10 to cede the final Champions League qualification position to Tottenham.
Last year, a sequence of three wins in the last nine games gave City the title.
And when asked if the pain of the previous two years would wear down his players ahead of Tuesday’s clash, Arteta replied: “I can’t control that.”
‘I can’t take away their phones and TVs or the people around them.
‘We didn’t lose anything last year because we didn’t win anything. What we had was an incredible journey against the best team in the world here and in Europe in the last seven years and this is where we want to be.
‘We are not satisfied and we want to be better and that is the level at which we are competing. We will give our best again until the last day to win those cups and be successful.
‘We have to change it and the opportunity comes there. “There are many things we can do to write our history very differently tomorrow, we know that and it will be about putting in a very, very strong performance collectively and individually to earn the right to be in the semi-final.”
The margins between success and failure on nights like this are often barely visible, although Bayern will remember their 10-1 aggregate victory over the Gunners in this competition in 2017.
Arsenal ran their team on the pitch at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday before the match.
But on nights like this, those margins, however large or small, are largely meaningless.
Winning is the only thing that matters. Nobody remembers the Champions League quarterfinalists.
‘Absolutely (victory would take Arsenal to the next level). “It would be incredible,” Arteta added.
“If we achieve it tomorrow and are in the semi-final, we will be in a very high emotional state with something we have not achieved in 15 years and that is the opportunity.”
“Most of our players have not experienced a night like this, this will be the first, they are super motivated.
“They are prepared, they feel confident and it is something that tomorrow we will have to demonstrate against a rival that has this experience, but we want this to happen.”