Head coach Marco Silva issued a warning to forward Isaac Success after the 21-year-old found himself embroiled in an alleged assault row on the front of a national newspaper at the weekend.

The Portuguese head coach reminded his young forward that “football is his life” and advised the Nigerian to be “careful” after it came to light that he had been arrested following an incident in a St Albans hotel last month.

Success has been ruled out with injury for the foreseeable future, meaning his absence from Saturday's squad to face Arsenal was already an inevitability.

But Silva is, like many managers, an advocate of keeping things in-house - and, more distinctively, has very high expectations of his players.

“Football is his life and, with everything around him, he needs to be careful,” the Portuguese head coach said. “He knows the right way to do everything and in our life we have to do things in the right moments, and in the right way.

“What is important to me in these situations is my players - in this situation it is Isaac. The young players with a different culture, we need to show them the right way.

“He knows, and everybody at the club knows, what their obligations are as a professional. When players do things in the wrong way, you try to point them in the right direction.

“I hope in every situation everything we do will stay inside the club. This is the best way to achieve things, even in bad situations. Anyone who loves football wouldn’t like this situation.”

Success is yet to feature for Silva in the Premier League, having fallen out of favour under Walter Mazzarri last season for a perceived lack of professionalism.

The head coach has been forced to include the Nigerian in his squad more by need than desire, with Nordin Amrabat loaned to Leganes against his will last month and a lack of options out wide as a result.

But the 40-year-old boss is, at least in public, pleased with his improvement since the two first met in June, despite his sole appearance coming as a second-half replacement in the League Cup exit to Bristol City in August.

“Until the moment of the injury the boy didn’t play one minute in the Premier League, but I am really happy with his improvement every day,” he said. “After the fourth game [Manchester City] he has started coming onto the bench for us.

“In some of those games he hasn’t played because of injuries on the pitch which I needed other substitutes.”