GLANCE FACTS
Learn about Lehmann
Goalkeeper J ens Lehmann made 148 appearances for Arsenal during a five-year spell with the Gunners and played in every game of their historic unbeaten Premier League campaign of 2003-04.
Now an ambassador for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, the former German international talks about Arsenal's decision to let Robin van Persie leave, their defensive improvement and his relationship with Gunners boss Arsene Wenger.
No longer relying on Robin
When you see Robin van Persie, a player who wants to leave for money and probably because he thinks that somewhere else it is easier to win, you have to let him go.
He had only one year left on his contract and had just completed his first campaign without an injury in eight or nine years, an extraordinary season for Robin. Then Arsenal had to make a decision - do they keep him or do they let him go?
The future will tell us, along with what will come into place next year with the introduction of Uefa's financial fair play rules. Then we will see how these rules actually come into play for clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City. It could turn out that clubs like Arsenal are all of a sudden far ahead of their rivals.
Building from the back
You can already see the benefit of appointing Steve Bould and Neil Banfield as coaches, because prior to 15 September Arsenal had not conceded a goal. That was a great achievement.
You can already see that there is some progress in that department. I hope that there will be a good balance between Arsene's offensive mindset and Bould and Banfield's secure tactics, which actually wins you trophies. I'm quite optimistic about the current season and hope of course that Arsenal will win something.
Becoming an Invincible
When I played for Arsenal my biggest moment probably was the 2003-04 season, when we did not lose a game as we won the Premier League title. At the time we didn't realise how big it was and how good we were. That team should have won more trophies, because we were the best team by far.
Early in the season we played Manchester United, and in the last minute they had a penalty. Ruud van Nistelrooy missed, hitting the crossbar. That was probably the defining moment when we knew we could go quite far, as luck was on our side.
