Arsenal boss Unai Emery says the substitution of Mesut Ozil was pre-planned in their Carabao Cup defeat at Liverpool.
Liverpool and Arsenal drew 5-5 in 90 action-packed minutes.
The Reds went on to win in a penalty shootout and book their place in the last eight of the Carabao Cup.
Emery said of Ozil, "I think he played very well. Tonight, you've seen he is a skilful player in the team and he was very positive every time and I think he played a very good match. We spoke before the match, and we made the decision in the second half to take him off because he hasn't played for a little while and we want to keep his fitness as he was very tired but for him it was great to play 60/65 minutes.
"We decided before the game to only play him for that amount of time. I think in that moment it is good to make that decision as we were calm and he did the work very well and we decided it was better to rest him.
"We have a match on Saturday and we will look at the possibility to use him again alongside other players and this is the way sometimes."
