Arsenal: Dani Ceballos denies training ground bust-up with David Luiz

Arsenal’s Dani Ceballos has denied being involved in a training ground altercation with fellow teammate David Luiz, with it alleged the Spanish midfielder was hit on the nose leaving “a scratch that drew blood”.

A report in The Athletic claimed that tensions boiled over during a training session at the end of last week after an overly aggressive challenge by Ceballos, with Luiz “retaliating by hitting him in the face” following Mikel Arteta’s final whistle.

Ceballos was allegedly knocked over during the incident and teammates intervened before the pair’s dispute could escalate any further.

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When the squad returned for training on Tuesday, they cleared the air and apologised to those present who aren’t away on international duty.

However, Ceballos, who was involved in a similar incident with Eddie Nketiah during a warm-up earlier this season, denied the story as “fake” on Twitter after it came to light on Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Arteta has been dealing with yet more questions over Mesut Ozil’s sidelining, with Arsenal struggling creatively and suffering a miserable 3-0 defeat by Aston Villa prior to the international break.

"I'm hurt because I don't like any player in my squad not to have the possibility to participate, or to compete, for me it is really sad because I don't think anybody deserves that," Arteta said in an interview with BeIn Sports.

“But at the end of the day I'm sitting here to make decisions, to make the decisions that, in my opinion, are the best for the football club. And this is what I have to do.”

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