Jens Lehmann says English referees have been harsher on Arsenal than any other side this season and admits the club has fallen short of expectations on the domestic front.
A number of contentious penalty calls against the Gunners have played a role in poor results in recent weeks, including the exit to Nottingham Forest in the cup and league draws with West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea.
So frustrated was Arsene Wenger with the decision to award a penalty at the Hawthorns that he earned himself a three-game touchline ban for comments directed at Mike Dean.
Lehmann told Sport Bild that, “in the league, we have indeed fallen a bit short of our expectations and need to improve.”
He made clear though, that he has clear issues with some of the officiating: “We had to accept by far the most bad calls in penalty decisions against us.
“We hope this will balance out over the remainder of the season.”
While Arsenal exited the FA Cup at the third round stage for the first time under Arsene Wenger, the former Germany international stressed that the club’s policy of fielding younger players was was worth defending.
While the result “was not as expected, you can’t repeat it [an FA Cup win] every year.”
He said: “We gave the young players a chance to make a case for themselves, but the result was sadly not as expected.
“Teams like Spurs or City, now regarded as outstanding, have won nothing in the past few years.”
Lehmann also touched on the distinctly German atmosphere at Arsenal after he was joined at London Colney by new head of recruitment Sven Mislintat and with Per Mertesacker set to take over the Academy in the summer.
“German as never before,” he described the club. “Players come and go. For instance, you don’t know if Mesut Ozil stays.”
“But Per Mertesacker will head the academy from the summer on. That’s going to be a big loss for the senior squad, because as a captain he is listened to.”
We also have the most sideway or back passes than any other club.
Please provide a source for this fact or at least try and explain what exactly makes sidewards passing against your own tactical ethos. Does it not work for you on FIFA?
Please don’t provide anything. lol
I love mad Jens. Those slow long walks outside his goal on penalties, stepping on players’ toes on corner kicks, kicking the post before the goal kicks.
Why hasn’t he kicked the defence into action?
We’ve had some pretty bad calls go our way too, interesting how Wenger didn’t complain of dishonesty after Iwobi’s handball wasn’t given as a pen on Sunday.
Because no one but you gives a shit.
I don’t like hypocrisy, I accept bad decision go both ways and i expect adults to be mature enough to see that.
When a manager goes into the refs office and calls him a cheat because a bad call goes against him i expect him to do the same a few weeks later when he benefits.
How can Wenger call for consistency from officials when he can’t even be consistent himself?
I believe it was Dean who referred to himself as a cheat in a weak attempt to stitch Wenger up and it didn’t work. Not that it mattered to the FA who stood by their man regardless of the facts. A bit like you yourself. Facts don’t matter, only your hatred of Wenger. And moaning in general.
Well said. And it’s not only this season. The cheating against Arsenal started about 6 seasons after Wenger came in. I guess they realized there’s no other way to stop him.
There should be a way for clubs to get rid of so called fans whose characters are such that they change their allegiance as the wind blows. Worse scum than the referees.
He did mention Jack’s dive the next day when he was already on a yellow one sentence after complaining about Hazard’s dive…
The instruction to referees is not to give a second yellow for a dive outside the box.
Its only an opinion. They are only words princess.
I am wondering the last time you posted something that was positive–if not about the club, then about an individual player, or a single performance, or a promising youngster, or that the train was less crowded than usual. Anything.
He couldn’t possibly, because people wouldn’t pay him any attention then.
The complaint from me at least isn’t bad and good calls happen throughout the games and season. This whole idea it evens out at the end.
The impact of that call directly effected the games outcome.
While the handball which it was wasn’t called. If it was called and AW complained about it then it would be hypocrisy. He can’t complain about a call that wasn’t made. Whats the point of complaining about call that wasn’t made against your club?
What does Jens say about our goalkeeping? As bad as the defence has been, and even with bad officiating, a top quality keeper would have saved us a couple of points in the games we’ve lost or drawn by a single goal. De Gea has done it for Man Utd for seasons on end now. Don’t get me wrong I respect Cech and think he’s been one of the greatest keepers of his generation, but I think it’s time we move him on in place of a younger and more agile keeper if we dream of challenging for the top… Read more »
Fair enough Cech has made some errors this season but has equally kept us in some games. I agree we need a new keeper but at a time when literally everyone (especially if you are on Twitter) is losing their head, it’s important to retain some perspective. I think Sven has earmarked the Koln keeper Timo Horn, who we could apparently get cut price if they are relegated. Which sounds much more like an Arsenal move!
I’d be extremely surprised if he wasn’t making his feelings clear on that. I’ve been surprised this season with the backroom changes so maybe that is addressed on and off the pitch in the summer? Has to be, surely, with Ospina going and Cech on the decline a bit
Who? Kasper what? The last time I checked he was not shaking the earth with his performances at Leicester. Even during their title winning season his performances did not catch eyes. He was average made saves that he should have made. Can’t remember any phenomenal saves he made.
Again, is in part of our complaints against Ospina that he is short? Kasper is not taller, may be even shorter.
So please, not him!
TBH I wish we’d never sold SZCZ.
seriously people need to get over Wojciech. he’s like the ex-girlfriend you still dream of sometimes till today
My friend whos a ManU fan, is of the opinion that if De Gea was better at commanding his defence on set pieces and such, he wouldnt need to make as many amazing last ditch saves.
He may be right, I dunno, as I dont really watch ManU.
But one thing I know, is we should really do better than Kasper. Much better.
Yeah, if only De Gea were better, Spain would call him up to be their keeper.
I hear there’s a good young goalkeeper at Juventus we could try and make a move for.
Does that include Iwobi’s elbow to ball motion in the first half at Bournemouth, that we got away with ? This whinging doesn’t address the real issues.
It didn’t affect the result in the end did it?
There was also a push on an arsenal player in the box before that of which no big deal was made, and we aren’t.
The West Brom and Chelski decisions cost us those games, in the latter, arguably also 3 points.
You’re allowed to address more than one issue at a time…
The penalty West brom didn’t get cost them points, the offside goal Mustafi scored against Spurs cost them points, stop speaking shit!!
Boohoo! You best write to your local MP.
Cost Sp*rs points ?? or maybe they just lose 1 – 0….. and really, who gives à shit…..?
That was boderline offsides and he still needs to make the play. Those offsides can go either way.
Most Spurs fans I know don’t have qualms with that Mustafi goal (well, except the fact we even scored)
Still wondering what he is doing there except taking the money…
Spreading the party line of how the officials have it in for us
We sure seem to and it’s annoying, but what’s far more annoying (and predictable) is how dreadful we’ve been at defending, midfielding and attacking.
Jens always having a dig at those scumbags! Classic!!!
On the day that we are not performing well trying to hold on for a draw or try to hold on to a lead, bad officiating cost us the game.
Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays.
“Teams like Spurs or City, now regarded as outstanding, have won nothing in the past few years.”
While City have won the league quite a bit in the last few years, he just megged the Spuds with that comment
“But Per Mertesacker will head the academy from the summer on. That’s going to be a big loss for the senior squad, because as a captain he is listened to.”
If there was ever any doubt about Per’s leadership capabilities as I have seen in the past here on this site , they are answered quite clearly here by Mad Jens
Mad Jens does not lie, he tells it like it is
Leadership? Where was the leadership against forest? He very conveniently goes missing when we’re getting rinsed and comes out with lessons learnt bollocks
Our performance though has been abysmally poor this season, truth be told..
One result I’m dreading at the end of the season.
Bosman 3 Arsenal 0
And anyone who has a howler of agame should be locked in a room with Mad Jens for an hour. Should do the trick for the likes of Hector, Xhaka and Iwobi.
Hector has scored in his last 2 games… are you mad?
His goals don’t mask his defensively shaky performances. I don’t know about others, but I’d rather my right-back/wing back actually know to defend first and foremost and any scored goals is just a bonus.
Great. He’s already learning from wenger about blaming refs. Also, how much is “a bit” short of expectations?
Spot on…
Also, taking a dig at City is a bit odd, they’re about to win the league for the 3rd in the last 7 seasons, we weren’t even competing for it in the last decade.
With realism, you can’t believe you can win every game. You can’t win any game without belief.
Sometimes the irrational works. If you play a sport that makes more sense than if you don’t.
He has been reading Arsenes big black book of excuses no doubt.
Distraction. Lets sort out cech first. Poor decision for the Cherrie’s equaliser. Should have kept Szsc but we are where we are now. We need to improve communication/awareness at the back but midfield also needs to track players running into the box. yet again, Granit failed to track the Cherry player into the box for their winner (And Bellerin a bit guilty too) This general awareness seems to be fundamentally lacking with us. Even picking players up in the box for set pieces, organisation. The keeper (Cech) could do more to give players a shout but we need to drill… Read more »
Bould isn’t allowed to do anything. We could all say he should walk but he earns over a million for sitting there. He has a wife and family to support so isn’t going to ruffle any feathers