Lampard beat Lehmann on his near post last night.
Then the Germans came back to win 2-1 at Wembley.
As a mistake, it wasn’t as gross as the David Healy goal and the David Dunn goal, obviously. After 8 minutes Micah Richards did well on the right, Lampard did well to stand still and stay onside, and when the short pass came he fired high between the near post and the keeper – and England were 1-0 up.
Two years ago, Lehmann would have saved that shot.
A few minutes later Lehmann punched a low ball against Michael Owen, creating a scramble which Gerrmany survived only because Owen missed an open goal which would have made it 2-2.
An Invincible, a great signing at £1.5 million, Lehmann came to Arsenal, who helped him became Germany’s best goalkeeper and earn his place Germany’s World Cup team when the tournament was held in his home country in 2006.
After that peak, his career was always going to tail off.
He’s 37 now and looks over the hill.
On Sunday Lehmann cost Arsenal two points at Blackburn. Sagna slapped his glove, as defenders do, as if to say, “Forget it, we all make mistakes.” Fabregas came out and said : We’re backing Jens.
But Lehmann was lucky that captain William Gallas had gone off injured after 22 minutes. Because Gallas would have turned his back in disgust and walked away. He would have shouted at Lehmann after that howler.
With Gallas out, and every City player fancying a shot at Lehmann, should Arsene play Amunia on Saturday ?
If he retains Lehmann, the German’s performance becomes bigger than the game and 60,000 punters will be waiting for his next mistake.
He could play Almunia, a 29-year old clown who has improved quite a lot.
Or he could ignore his beloved pecking order and play Lukasz Fabianski, who is 23 and was voted best goalkeeper in the Polish League in 2006 and 2007. Fabianski has four senior caps and was their Regular Under-21 keeper.
Almunia has never been a success, Fabianski has never been a failure
After all, Man City have Kasper Schmeichel in goal and he’s only 19.