It’s a critical time for Arsenal and nagging fears are resurfacing… Mikel Arteta urges them to be brave and secure a place in the Champions League semi-final: so can they handle the heat?

All of a sudden, a familiar, rather uneasy feeling takes over the Emirates Stadium.

A sinking feeling, the kind that prepares you for the worst.

Arsenal’s mettle is once again being questioned ahead of a week that could define their season following Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa.

There is real basis for these emerging doubts. We’ve seen this movie before.

The capitulation at the end of last season which 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.

Likewise, in the 2021/22 season they have been propelled towards a Champions League place which for so long seemed within their reach. It didn’t help matters that Tottenham went ahead of them.

The Gunners suffered a shock defeat to Aston Villa which hurt their Premier League chances

The devastation of these failures continues. It’s hard to get rid of it.

So here we are again faced with a critical period and these nagging 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 last four of the Champions League awaits them if they manage to triumph here in Munich on Wednesday.

On Saturday they travel to Wolves where anything other than victory would deal a potentially fatal blow to their title ambitions.

But above all, here in Bavaria, the Gunners have the opportunity to silence those who have already considered them eternal stranglers.

A stoic Arteta urged his team to seize the opportunity on Wednesday evening.

“A performance puts us in the semi-final of the Champions League,” said the Spaniard.

“All the preparation has been done to achieve this. We deserved it. We deserved it for ten months and everything we did last season, to start our Champions League journey after so many years.

Harry Kane and Co aim to reach Champions League semi-finals at Arsenal’s expense

Declan Rice looks distraught after 2-0 defeat to Villa and old fears resurface

“Tomorrow we have an incredible opportunity to achieve this goal.

“Whatever the result against Villa is, it will have no impact on what happens here.

“Refocus and start building confidence and understanding of the performance we are going to have to put in to beat them and get past the draw.”

Of course, exorcising the April curse that characterized their previous two campaigns will be a daunting challenge.

Bayern Munich. Harry Kane. The Allianz Arena. It makes your heart race.

With the tie well balanced at 2-2, Arsenal will enter the red cauldron on Wednesday night with confidence.

So they should. Before Sunday’s defeat, Arsenal had collected 31 points from a possible 33 in the Premier League.

“We need to use the defeat against Villa as a reaction on the biggest stage to show everyone what we are capable of,” said Leandro Trossard.

Additionally, Bayern are missing key players Kinglsey Coman and Serge Gnabry due to injuries, while Alphonse Davies is suspended.

Arteta admits he can’t control whether players remember failures of recent years

Arsenal would face Man City or Real Madrid if they beat Bayern Munich

Yet Arteta will need no reminder that this is the month his side have spectacularly collapsed in two consecutive seasons.

In 2022, they have lost five of their last 10 games to cede the final Champions League qualifying spot to Tottenham.

Last year, a run of three wins in the last nine matches gave City the title.

And when asked if the pain of the previous two years would eat away at his players ahead of Tuesday’s clash, Arteta replied: “I can’t control that.

“I can’t take away their phones and their TVs, or the people around them.”

“We didn’t lose anything last year because we didn’t win anything. What we’ve had is an incredible run against the best team in the world here and in Europe over the last seven years and that This is where we want to be.

“We are not satisfied and we want to be better and this is what we are competing at. We will still do our best until the last day to win these cups and be successful.

“We need to change it and the opportunity presents itself. There are a lot of things we can do to write our story very differently tomorrow, we know that and it will be about putting in a very, very good performance 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 highlight their 10-1 aggregate victory over the Gunners in this competition in 2017.

Arsenal ran their team onto the pitch at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday before the match.

But, on nights like this, those margins – whether big or small – are largely meaningless.

Winning is all that matters or It’s only the result that matters. Nobody remembers the quarter-finalists of the Champions League.

“Absolutely (a win would take Arsenal to the next level). It would be incredible,” Arteta added.

“If we make it tomorrow and we’re in the semi-final, we’ll be in a very high emotional state with something we haven’t achieved in 15 years and that’s opportunity.

“Most of our players have never experienced an evening like this, it will be the first, they are super motivated.

“They are prepared, they feel confident and that is something we will have to show tomorrow against an opponent who has that experience but we want to get there.”