Mikel Arteta hit out at the 'insane' Premier League schedule after three players succumbed to injury in Arsenal's 3-1 win at Leicester.
Leicester winger Harvey Barnes requires knee surgery and will be out for at least six weeks after he was carried off on a stretcher with his legs in a brace. Team-mate Jonny Evans will have a scan on a calf problem and Arsenal playmaker Emile Smith Rowe was substituted just before half-time with a muscular issue.
'It's absolutely normal that it is happening,' said Arteta, when asked about the injuries. 'It is insane – the amount of minutes and the games that these players are playing without any pre-season, without any break.
'You are going to get injuries. We talked about it, all the managers raised our voices at the start of the season and [now] it's happening.'
Arteta used those injuries to justify his decision to rest key men Bukayo Saka and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang here, after both helped Arsenal knock Benfica out of the Europa League in Athens less than 72 hours earlier.
Leicester were already without key players for this game – James Maddison, James Justin, Dennis Praet, Ayoze Perez and Wesley Fofana were all unavailable – before Barnes and Evans were injured, while Jamie Vardy appeared to be feeling pain around his hip in the first half.
'This is why we needed to change players [today], because if not we were going to expose our players to injuries,' Arteta added. 'But sometimes you don't have a chance as a manager [to do that] because you don't have enough players or you have the necessity to win and play them again.'
Arsenal have a full week's break before their next league game, while Leicester travel to Burnley on Wednesday. Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers said: 'We have carried injuries all season and we are down to the bare bones. When you miss influential players, it makes a difference.'