Mikel Arteta has played down the significance of the training ground row between David Luiz and Dani Ceballos and says there are ‘no problems’ between both players.
The duo were among the senior Arsenal players who have not been away on international duty over the last fortnight and had been preparing for Sunday’s game against Leeds.
During a practice match, tempers are reported to have flared and that Luiz was irritated by a challenge from Ceballos and he retaliated by hitting the Spanish midfielder in the face, drawing some blood.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Arteta said: ‘Nothing. The training is very competitive and issues happened a lot of times, those things get resolved immediately within the team and not much to say. There is no problem between the two.’
Quizzed on whether he saw the incident, Arteta added: ‘No. I’ve got a really bad vision from far away! That’s why we train behind closed doors.’
It is not the first time this campaign that Ceballos has been involved in an altercation with a team-mate at the club.
Back in September, on the opening day of the Premier League campaign, he was seen scrapping with Nketiah during a warm-up exercise and was forced to play down the bust-up after the 3-0 victory.
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On Joe Willock, who could come into contention against Leeds, Arteta said: ‘I mentioned with Joe that I’ve been really impressed with him, the way he’s handled the situation of not having much game time in the Premier League.
‘I haven’t seen him train like he’s done in the last five or six weeks under difficult circumstances. I think the reflection of that is the way he’s playing in the Europa League when he’s had the minutes, or the Carabao Cup in this case. He has a chance like everybody else to play on Sunday.’
