Lehmann Has Been Outstanding This Season…

After all the speculation about who would be Germany’s number one for the World Cup, it has finally been announced officially that Lehmann will be picked over Oliver Kahn.

I’m not really bothered about the German National Team, but it’s good news that Jens has been rewarded with walking out with his National team in his home country in the biggest tournament in the world. Kahn has been very inconsistent this year and I would have been surprised if the big ape got the nod over Lehmann.

This is great news for Arsenal especially with the run in, as Lehmann knows he’s Germany’s keeper this summer. I would hate to think how his impressive form would turn if he found out a poor-performing Kahn was picked ahead of him – he might start making those big mistakes that he has done in the past. Luckily he’s cut them out completely this season and look where we are – in the semi-finals of the Champions League!

Along with Cesc, Toure and Henry, Lehmann has been so consistent the entire campaign and has been a great influence on a team in transition at the beginning of the season. He deserves his place in the German starting eleven. I just wonder what kind of abuse Oliver Kahn’s going to come out with in the coming weeks!

The other big news (apart from some game midweek, can’t remember who it was against…) is that Sol Campbell is ‘ready’ to come back to the Arsenal team.

Oh right, Sol’s ready now is he? Thanks for letting us know Sol!

That’s great Sol, but where were you when we needed you? You abandoned your team-mates after a horror 45 minutes against West Ham and to be quite frank, Sol has come back physically and mentally when Arsenal need him the least.

Out of the experienced players Lehmann, Henry and Freddie have all stuck around when the going’s got tough, and even though Gilberto didn’t have the greatest of starts to this season and had some shocking performaces – at least he’s been around to build. And look how the team is performing now.

Since Sol left the team Arsenal have progressed to the semi-finals of the Champions League, set a new defensive record in Europe and have been flying in the league recently.

Don’t get me wrong – Sol has been excellent for us in the past, but Arsenal’s defence have been outstanding in the last few months and got us through against European giants Real Madrid and Juventus.

It would be criminal to drop anyone of the back four for Sol Campbell. And I don’t think Ashley Cole should replace Flamini at left back either but that’s another story.

Some players think they have a divine right to start for Arsenal and that’s just not true.

Arsenal have been putting in great performances as a team, and it seems to me that Campbell just wants to get some games under his belt so he can get back into the England team. I doubt very much if he cares much about Arsenal.

Sol Campbell doesn’t have a chance of dislodging John Terry and Rio Ferdinand and should really get used to warming the bench for a long time…