Arsenal America

“Jens who?”
“Jens Lehmann”
“Nope, never heard of him.”
“Yes you have. Remember that German goal-keeper who scored a goal?”
“Oh that guy who grabbed a last minute equalizer?”
“Yup.”
“Arsenal have signed him? Well that is good.”

He may have only scored two goals but that was how I knew about Jens Lehmann when Arsenal signed him from Dortmund in 2003. Back then, it looked like a perfect signing — Arsenal getting a goal-keeper who could score a goal! It looked like the final piece in Wenger’s quest for total football. Although, a quick search would have revealed the other side of Jens — the one which resulted in him getting a handful of red cards in Germany. But I ignored that completely.

And as his first season for Arsenal progressed, Jens showed both his good and ugly side. On one hand he was a big part of the unbeaten Arsenal team while on the other hand, his short fuse was letting him play into the hands of opponents. When Arsenal were a minute away from defeating Spurs at White Hart Lane and securing the title, Robbie Keane got in Jens’ face resulting him in pushing Keane and giving away a needless penalty. Keane tied the game up from the penalty spot to make it 2-2. A draw was good enough for Arsenal’s title but that point allowed Spurs to breathe a little bit easier away from the relegation zone.

I continued to see Jens as a liability until the Arsenal America tour of Highbury in 2005 changed my views on him. On Friday, Nov 4 2005 after the Highbury tour, I was browsing through the official Arsenal squad profile. My eyes caught Lehmann’s birthday — Nov 10. Same as mine! I couldn’t believe I had never noticed that before. I finally understood Jens’s temperament — his birth sign was a Scorpio. It all made sense, atleast to me. Still, I mellowed a bit towards him and was looking forward to seeing him play against Sunderland. On Saturday, I was lucky to get a seat behind the goal on the North Bank Lower, Row A. The seat was half-way in between the left hand goal post and the corner flag. Lehmann and Almunia were warming up directly in front of me with a temporary second goal. One of the blocked shots rebounded off Lehmann and landed in the row behind me. A little boy threw the ball over the goal and into Lehmann’s arms. Lehmann came closer to the railing, looked at the boy in the eye, gave him a smile, a wink and a thumbs up. The little boy was obviously thrilled and rushed back up the stairs with a big smile on his face. I was beginning to like Lehmann a bit too.

On Nov 19 when Arsenal won their first away game of the 2005/06, I completely understood Lehmann’s outburst against Wigan. After Wigan scored a goal, Cesc tried to delay the ball being returned. Jason Roberts decided Cesc’s behavior warranted a punch to the back of the head. Lehmann immediately rushed out of his goal to stand up for Cesc. He was the only Arsenal player to do so.

During the Arsenal America tour, one of the songs belted out at the T-Bird pub was: “We are going to Paris”. I don’t remember all the lyrics but this is a close account I believe –
When we going, I don’t know,
How we’ll get there, I don’t care,
All I know is, we are on our way
We’re on our way, we’re on way
We’re going to Paris, we’re on our way.

Well thanks to Lehmann, Arsenal did make it to Paris for the Champions League final. After regaining his spot on the team in early 2006, Lehmann produced a string of key saves, including amazing saves against Madrid at Highbury (from Raul’s effort) & a last minute penalty save against Villarreal to take Arsenal into their first Champions league final. Unfortunately, Lehmann’s final against Barca only lasted 18 minutes when he was sent off. Sadly, that was also the amount of time that Robert Pires played in the final. Pires never played for Arsenal again, but Lehmann would return.

This season began with a lot of question marks and Lehmann didn’t help matters when he gifted Fulham an early goal in the first minute. Arsenal managed to win the game and I had hoped that mistake from Jens was just a temporary blip. But in the next game, a Lehmann fumble gave Blackburn a 1-1 tie. As the ball fell into the net, I remember Jens holding his head in his gloves. It was a contrasting image for a man used to holding his chin up on the field, defiant and ready to take on any opponent. Lehmann’s time appeared to have finally run out and it looked like he would never play for Arsenal again. Dortmund came knocking in January and at the last minute, Lehmann stayed. When Arsenal were going through their bad patch in March, I secretly hoped Lehmann would return to maybe breathe some fire into an Arsenal team that was quietly laying down. But it was not to be. Still, Lehmann got a chance against Manchester in that crucial league game and produced a good performance. And better yet, he kept his cool.

It was a nice gesture to see Lehmann get a good farewell against Everton. Considering that Vieira & Henry left the team without a final wave, it was nice to see Lehmann for one final time. Despite his flaws, he was a big part of the Arsenal team over the last few years. I can only wish him the best at Euro 2008 and his future.

Fading memories:
This was the line-up when Arsenal stamped their mark on the 2003/04 title with a powerful 4-2 win over Liverpool:
Lehmann, Campbell, Cole, Lauren, Vieira, Pires, Ljungberg, Gilberto, Toure, Bergkamp, Henry. Subs: Edu, Keown, Reyes, Rami Shaaban, Clichy

With Lehmann now gone, only two first team members (Clichy was a sub) from that invincible team remain — Kolo & Gilberto (although a question mark hangs over Gilberto’s future). A lot has changed over the last four few years (new stadium, new team). The team has undergone a complete revamping in a such a little amount of time. I can understand Wenger’s need for keeping the current team together in the summer.