Jens Lehmann is still "top drawer" according to Arsène Wenger.
 
The Arsenal keeper, who will miss the next two weeks of the campaign with an Achilles injury, has made costly errors against Fulham and Blackburn this season. Despite that, his manager feels the 37-year-old German is still at the height of his powers.
 
"You always have to defend your goalkeeper and your players," said the Arsenal manager.  "The problem when you get older is people say you're on a decline, but I am still convinced Jens is top drawer.
 
"I don't know if Lehmann's injury played a part in his mistakes. I think he had pain in his Achilles in the last three weeks and pushed it through.
 
"But apart from the mistakes, he had good games. I cannot specifically say that he couldn't jump, he couldn't move.
 
"On the first mistake he changed his mind and was caught, and the second one maybe was the flight of the ball. It was the first time I had seen him make that kind of mistake. With feet it can happen, but with his hands Jens is usually 100 per cent security.
 
"We'll see if it is a good time for Jens to step out of the firing line. But Almunia will play and the most important thing is he plays well on Saturday."

Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 24 Aug 2007