It’s crunch time for Arsenal and nagging fears are re-emerging… Mikel Arteta is urging them to prove their mettle and earn a place in the Champions League semi-finals – so can they handle the heat?
Suddenly, there is a familiar, rather apprehensive feeling gripping the Emirates Stadium.
A sinking feeling, the kind that makes you prepare for the worst.
Arsenal’s nerve is again being questioned ahead of a week that could define their season after Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa.
There is a genuine basis for these 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.
Mikel Arteta knows how important this week is for Arsenal as they look to define their season
The Gunners suffered a shock defeat by Aston Villa to dent their Premier League chances
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Similarly, in the 2021/22 season they were moved to a Champions League place, which for so long seemed to be in their hands. It didn’t help matters that it was Tottenham who dived in front of them.
The devastation of these failures lingers. They are hard to shake off.
So here we are again, it’s crunch time and that nagging fear is resurfacing.
Will lightning strike three times? Does history repeat itself? Can Arsenal handle the heat? Are they braver? We’re figuring it out.
The stakes couldn’t be higher – a place in the Champions League final four allures if they can prevail here in Munich on Wednesday.
On Saturday, they travel to Wolves, where anything but victory would deal a potentially fatal blow to their title ambitions.
But first things first, here in Bayern the Gunners have the opportunity to silence those who have already written them off as perennial shockers.
Arteta stoically urged his side to seize the chance on Wednesday night.
“A performance puts us in the Champions League semi-finals,” 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 start our journey in the Champions League after so many years.
Harry Kane and Co are looking to reach the last four of the Champions League at Arsenal’s expense
Declan Rice looks despondent after late 2-0 defeat to Villa as old fears resurface
‘Tomorrow we have an incredible opportunity to make it happen.
“Regardless of that result against Villa, it won’t have any bearing on what’s going to happen here.
‘Refocus and start to build that confidence, trust and understanding of the performance that we’re going to have to put in to beat them and go through in the draw.’
Of course, it will be a tall order to exorcise the April curse that has marked their previous two campaigns.
Bayern Munich. Harry Kane. Allianz Arena. It gets your heart pumping.
With the tie finely poised at 2-2, Arsenal head into the red cauldron on Wednesday night with confidence.
So they should. Before Sunday’s loss, Arsenal had earned 31 out of a possible 33 points in the Premier League.
“We have to use the defeat to Villa as a reaction on the biggest stage to show everyone what we are capable of,” said Leandro Trossard.
In addition, Bayern are missing key players Kinglsey Coman and Serge Gnabry due to injury, while Alphonse Davies is suspended.
Arteta admits he cannot control whether the players remember the failures of recent years
Arsenal will face either Man City or Real Madrid if they overcome Bayern Munich
Yet Arteta needs no reminding that this is the month his side have spectacularly solved for two consecutive seasons.
In 2022, they lost five of their last 10 to surrender the final Champions League qualification position to Tottenham.
Last year a run of three wins in the last nine games gave City the title.
And asked if the pain of the previous two years will eat into his players ahead of Tuesday’s clash, Arteta replied: ‘I can’t control it.
‘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 for 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 we are competing at. we will try again our best till the last day to win these trophies and be successful.
‘We have to change it and the opportunity will come. There are plenty of things we can do to write our history very differently tomorrow, we know that, and it’s going to be about putting in a very, very strong performance both collectively and individually to earn the right to be in the semi-final.’
The margins between success and failure on nights like these are often barely visible, although Bayern will point to their 10-1 aggregate win over the Gunners in this competition back in 2017.
Arsenal had their team on the pitch at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday ahead of the match
But on nights like this, those margins — no matter how big or small — are largely meaningless.
Winning is all that matters. Nobody remembers the quarter-finalists in the Champions League.
‘Absolutely (win would take Arsenal to the next level). It would be incredible,’ added Arteta.
“If we make it happen tomorrow and we’re in the semi-finals, we’ll be in a really high emotional state with something that we haven’t achieved for 15 years and that’s 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 that is something we have to show tomorrow against an opponent who has this experience, but we want to make it happen.’