Unai Emery explained the reasoning behind his team selection, after witnessing a disappointing defeat to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
The head coach made seven changes to the side that beat Napoli on Thursday night, and said that injuries played their part in his starting 11.
"We changed because we are going to play a lot of matches," he said. "We have had some injuries, like with Aaron Ramsey, and we need to protect the players. For example, Xhaka asked to change in the second half against Napoli and today could've played, but with some risk. We need to protect our players and to us other players.