Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery has moved to play down rumours of a rift with mercurial playmaker Hatem Ben Arfa after the Spaniard dropped him from his squad for four consecutive matches.
Emery omitted Ben Arfa from his group for the 1-1 UEFA Champions League draw at home to Arsenal, as well as the 6-0 win away at SM Caen, the 3-0 home win over Dijon FCO and the 2-0 defeat away at Toulouse in Ligue 1.
The Basque tactician denied suggestions of a rift with the France international and instead revealed that he actually rates the 29-year-old highly but made his decision based on the former OGC Nice man's lacking physical condition.
"Ben Arfa is a great player," Emery told COPE radio. "He has not played the last few matches because I thought that he needed to work harder to be in better shape. I am satisfied with his attitude. He has handled these moments outside the squad well and he has buckled down in training.
"When he gets his opportunity, and he will, I want him to seize it and do well," he added. "I want him to take the team to the level that we aspire to be at."
Ben Arfa is known to be a capricious talent but Emery insisted that his current No. 21 is anything but the troublesome character he is made out to be.
"A difficult player? No, not at all on a personal level," Emery said. "Everything has gone well. We have had three individual conversations about this to make sense of it all, with regards to the team and my relationship with the players. The discussions we had on all of those topics were very respectful."
Ben Arfa appeared to react to Emery's challenge to improve his fitness levels by posting on Instagram to tell his coach "challenge accepted."
Ben Arfa was expected to return to the PSG squad for the trip to face Ludogorets Razgrad in the Champions League this week but was instead ruled out with a shin issue picked up in training ahead of the match.