Familiar Champions League foes reunite in front of a bouncing Emirates atmosphere on Tuesday night, as Arsenal and Bayern Munich meet in the first leg of their quarter-final.

The Gunners overcame FC Porto on penalties to banish their knockout demons from seasons past, while Bayern – who will have none of their fans present in North London due to a firework misdemeanour – progressed this far through a second-leg turnaround against Lazio.

The last-16 monkey on Arsenal’s back had plagued the North London giants since their most recent progressesion to the last eight of the Champions League in 2009-10, where the Arsene Wenger-led crop recovered from a first-leg deficit against Porto with a dominant 5-0 Emirates victory.

Fourteen years later, the manner of Arsenal’s fightback against the Portugues powerhouses was not so emphatic, but thanks to a pair of David Raya saves from the spot while Mikel Arteta’s outfielders remained perfect from 12 yards, the Gunners emulated their 2009-10 selves and finally banished their last-16 hoodoo.

The beaten 2006 finalists now have more European demons to banish on Tuesday night – not least their recent series of humiliating Bayern batterings – as two of their last three quarter-final appearances in the Champions League ended in elimination, the outlier being victory over Villarreal in 2008-09.

However, the Emirates vibe is arguably at its zenith since Arsena left their Highbury home, as a 3-0 Premier League victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on Satuday – their 10 win from 11 top-flight games and fourth clean sheet in a row across all competitions – took them back to the top of the table amid the engrossing three-way fight for glory.

While equalling a club record of keeping five successive away clean sheets in the Premier League, Arsenal now return to their feared home on the back of six straight wins at the Emirates across all competitions, and they have won all four of their Champions League games on familiar territory this season without shipping a single goal.

Of course, Bayern possess a feared marksman with all the know-how of scoring at the Emirates Stadium in Harry Kane, who after years of Tottenham Hotspur torment finally ended his North London association in a bid to rid the silverware monkey off his back.

The England captain and another erstwhile Arsenal academy product in Serge Gnabry put Bayern 2-0 up in the weekend’s Bundesliga encounter with Heidenheim, but due to a catastrophic second-half collapse, the faltering champions all but conceded the crown to Bayer Leverkusen in a disappointing 3-2 defeat.

Sixteen points adrift of Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten side with six matches remaining, Bayern will lose their loose grip to the Bundesliga title should Leverkusen win just one of their last six maatches, so barring a footballing miracle, the Champions League will be Thomas Tuchel’s only saving grace before he calls time on his ill-fated spell this summer.

Bayern also had to do it the hard way in the last 16, fighting back from a 1-0 defeat to Lazio with a 3-0 second-leg win to make the quarter-finals for the fifth season running, but European demons have been haunting Tuesday’s visitors in recent times as well, as they have been knocked out at this stage three years running.

Keeping just one clean sheet in their last 12 matches across all competitions also serves to diminish Bayern’s confidence before they renew acquaintances with Arsenal, whom they have beaten 5-1 in each of their last three meetings, but given the respective trajectories of the two heavyweights domestically, Gooners have every right to believe that revenge is imminent.

Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich Head to head

In the 14 previous meetings between these two teams, Arsenal have claimed five victories while Bayern have won seven, and they have drawn in two. Bayern have scored 29 goals and conceded 16 in the process.

• 04/11/2015
  Bayern Munich

  5

  Arsenal

  1
  Champions League
• 15/02/2017
  Bayern Munich

  5

  Arsenal

  1
  Champions League
• 07/03/2017
  Arsenal

  1

  Bayern Munich

  5
  Champions League
• 19/07/2017
  Bayern Munich

  1

  Arsenal

  1 P
  International Champions Cup
• 18/07/2019
  Arsenal

  2

  Bayern Munich

  1
  International Champions Cup