Manuel Almunia Foils Spurs, and Jens Lehmann

By: Daryl | December 22nd, 2007

Almunia hero The weekend’s salivation worthy trio of derbies got going today, with Arsenal beating Spurs 2-1. Unhappy as Spurs fans may be (seems they just can’t beat Arsenal) the saddest man around was Arsenal’s official second-choice keeper Jens Lehmann. The grumpy German has done plenty of complaining lately about how Manuel Almunia “does not have my class” (because there’s nothing classier than claiming your rival doesn’t have your class) but had to watch from the bench as Almunia was Arsenal’s hero today.

After Emmanuel Adebayor and Dimitar Berbatov had traded goals, both being set up by backheel passes from Cesc Fabregas and Robbie Keane respectively, Spurs won a penalty when Kolo Toure brought down Berbatov in the box. Up stepped Robbie Keane, but Manuel Almunia dived to his right and palmed the ball away. Get a look at the face on Lehmann when that happened. A few minutes later Niklas Bendtner emerged from the Arsenal bench to head home the winner, and Gooners everywhere celebrated. Except maybe Jens, who will probably be looking forward to January extra hard now.

Grumpy Lehmann video via 101 Great Goals