LM have wisely removed those claims from their website, but they live on in carefully rephrased statements, modified to compatible, equal to or better, etc, which are still open to debate, especially as they now include caveats such as Gen 4 jets being "hogged up" vs F-35 carrying only internal weapons.
"As they
now include caveats...?"
May I offer that way back in 2008, well before flight envelope expansion, essentially the exact terminology used by Flynn was used by the F-35's deputy program officer, Maj Gen Davis:
The F-35 is a racehorse, not a "dog," as Wheeler/Sprey suggest. In stealth combat configuration, the F-35 aerodynamically outperforms all other combat-configured 4th generation aircraft in top-end speed, loiter, subsonic acceleration and combat radius. This allows unprecedented "see/shoot first" and combat radius advantages.
So from my perspective, these allegedly "new" caveats have been around for quite some time.
Edit: Ooops. I see that FodPlod beat me to this quote.