Wenger has signed Polish international Lukasz Fabianski, who at 22 is 15 years Lehmann's junior and widely regarded as a hot future prospect.

And Lehmann was made fully aware he could no longer consider himself an automatic first choice player.

"The coach told me certain things during an interview and I thought about them before deciding to prolong with Arsenal until June 2008," said Lehmann.

"I want to impose myself on this situation and that's why I decided to stay until 2008," added the German number one ahead of his country's Euro 2008 qualifier against San Marino on Saturday.

Lehmann, who has been at Arsenal since 2003, said the coming season will be his hardest yet. He faces a battle to keep hold of both the Arsenal and Germany number one shirts.

"If I play at Arsenal I will have no worries for the national team because the English league is a higher level than the German league," he said. "If I'm not starting at Arsenal, then that will be new for me."

Lehmann displaced Bayern Munich stopper Oliver Kahn as Germany's first choice keeper before last season's World Cup but faces stiff competition from Timo Hildebrand, who is leaving German champions Stuttgart for Valencia, Robert Henke of Hanover and Schalke 04's Manuel Neuer.