The Paris-born midfielder, signed from Le Havre in July 2005, was linked with a return to France after struggling to force his way into the Chelsea first team under manager Jose Mourinho.

His future was put in further doubt when he turned up late for a pre-match team meeting on the day of an FA Cup tie against Macclesfield in January and was immediately dropped from the Chelsea squad.

But he has rebuilt his reputation and his relationship with Mourinho over the last few weeks, playing a string of eight games in a row, including 90 minutes in the Carling Cup Final victory over Arsenal last weekend.

Now the 21-year-old, widely regarded as a potential successor to Claude Makelele for both club and country, has indicated he expects to stay at Chelsea.

Speaking at a press conference at Chelsea's Cobham training ground he said: "I never expressed a desire to leave Chelsea and I certainly never said I wanted to go to PSG.

"I want to reiterate now I'm very happy here, I want to play for Chelsea, I see my future here and I'm certainly not looking to move away. I'm happy with how things are going.

"Although I'm from Paris and obviously it's a team I've always been aware of growing up, I have never expressed a desire to go to PSG.

"What I did say was that I went to the manager and told him I wanted to play games. I'm a young lad and developing as a player and you want games under your belt to get better. That's all I said.

"Maybe the clubs might have talked at some stage about a possible loan deal or something, I don't know. But I just want to play games, that's all I said."

Diarra's return to favour at Chelsea is an indication of an improved attitude off the field because Mourinho has shown in the past he can be ruthless when players fail to live up to his high standards.

However the Frenchman, who has played at right-back as well as in midfield this season, is adamant his relationship with the Portuguese coach is now repaired.

"It was six weeks ago and that is a long time ago," he said. "All I'm looking to do now is play. There is absolutely no problem at all between myself and the manager."