same day. He was given the number 20 shirt. On 16 July, Ben Arfa was involved in another training session bust-up, this time with striker and France international player Djibril Cissé. Cissé later joined English club Sunderland on loan. Ben Arfa made his league debut on the opening day of the season in a 4–4 draw with Rennes. He scored his first goal for Les Marseillais in that match. He continued in form scoring six times in his first 11 matches. However, his reputation for controversy continued to haunt him when he was involved in another dispute, this time with the Cameroon international player Modeste M'bami during a warm up session ahead of the club's UEFA Champions League match against Liverpool. The two had to be separated by Ronald Zubar. Controversy arose again following Marseille's 4–2 loss to Le Classique rivals Paris-Saint Germain. He drew the ire of manager Eric Gerets after his refusal to leave the bench to warm up. Ben Arfa later said he was injured much to the chagrin of Gerets, but later apologized for the incident to the media and Gerets himself. Upon his return to the squad, Ben Arfa responded by scoring a goal and providing the assists on both the other goals in a 3–1 victory over Saint-Étienne. Ben Arfa switched to the number 10 shirt for the 2009–10 season and made his debut on the opening match day of the season in a 2–0 away victory over Grenoble appearing as a substitute in the 68th minute. The following week, he earned his first start of the season against Lille and assisted the winning goal scored by Brandão. Controversy surfaced again, however, when, on 8 October 2009, Ben Arfa was fined €10,000 by the club for missing a training session. Ben Arfa blamed the absence on airport delays as he was in Tunisia visiting family members during the international break. A month later, on 18 November, he got into a heated argument with manager Didier Deschamps during a training session, for which Ben Arfa later apologized. Under Deschamps in the first half of the season, Ben Arfa appeared in 15 of the club's 20 league matches and only played the full 90 minutes in two matches, a 2–1 defeat against Monaco and a 2–0 defeat to Auxerre. Ben Arfa's play during the 2010 portion of the season earned praise from both Deschamps and sporting