Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has played down suggestions that Declan Rice could be facing time on the sidelines with the issue that he picked up against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Rice was substituted in the 73rd minute of the London derby, and he looked in discomfort when he headed to the side of the pitch to be replaced by Jorginho.
There had been some concern over the England international's fitness, but Arteta said that last summer's big-money arrival from West Ham United was suffering with muscular fatigue.
"He was feeling some tiredness. I don't know exactly what muscle it was but when he says that at 3-0 obviously we don't want to take any risks," Arteta told reporters in his post-match press conference.
"The same with big Gabi (Gabriel) as well. He had some discomfort, he had a tackle in the first half and was a bit struggling so it was the right moment to take them off."
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Gabriel's header sent Arsenal on their way in the 11th minute of the clash with Palace, and the Gunners ultimately recorded a 5-0 victory over the Eagles to return to winning ways in style.
Arteta's side are back up into third position in the Premier League table, two points behind leaders Liverpool, although Jurgen Klopp's side have played a game less.
Arsenal's first two goals came from corners, and Arteta spoke of the importance of set-pieces following the clash with Roy Hodgson's side.
"It's very important. The reality is we worked set-pieces less in the last week than all other aspects of the game. This is the beauty of it, we worked on a lot of things that happened and we trained them a lot," he added.
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"I'm really pleased with the clean sheet, which is something we have been missing to win more games, the amount of goals scored, and sharing those goals as well which I think is going to make a really good impact on the team.
"Having the ability to score from many different ways - especially when you attack a low block team like this - to score in a certain way everything has to be nailed absolutely perfectly.
"When you generate things that are a bit more chaotic, sometimes it opens teams up and is more difficult to do that. Today I think we exploited that really well because Palace had to change their behaviour and that allowed us spaces to exploit."
Arsenal will not play again until an away game against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on January 30, and Arteta also spoke about the importance of "resting and looking after some players" during the next few days.
The Gunners entered the clash with Palace off the back of three straight losses in all competitions, but they comfortably dispatched an under-pair Eagles outfit at the Emirates Stadium.
Matt Law
