Arsenal news: William Saliba finally plays, Declan Rice talks money, more

The Arsenal men's team heads into the international break, and they sit top of the Premier League table. They've achieved this feat despite facing roadblocks in their squad availability. The main absentee has been William Saliba, who has been forced into missing the first few months of action for the Gunners.

Nevertheless, Arsenal beat Hull City at the weekend by 1-0, benefiting from their primary title rivals, Man City, dropping all three points. As they look ahead to post-international break, it'll be Brighton they fear the most, as the Seagulls climbed to second this weekend.

It was great to see William Saliba back out on the pitch. Saliba was included in the Arsenal Under 21 lineup to face Aston Villa - a game which Arsenal won 5-2.

Saliba was exactly what you'd expect of him at the back - calm, composed and organised. He brought the Rolls-Royce approach to Arsenal's youth setup, which is frankly unfair for any young attacker looking to impress!

"He's the ultimate professional from the minute he got in this morning to half-time," said U21s head coach David Horseman. "He's fine; it was all pre-planned [to play 45 minutes], so nobody needs to panic."

It didn't just benefit Saliba to be involved in action again, but Horsman thinks Saliba's teammates on the day should have learned from his professionalism. "Just the way he was in the meeting, everything about him, the way he prepares on the bus, the lads probably won't notice it, but they should."

"The way he coaches and talks on the pitch, and then his quality, the detail of play, and he mixed his game up between short and long."

Declan Rice has been named by GQ as one of its Men of the Year. Rice was featured on a recent cover, looking rather suave while holding a mug of what we can only assume is tea. However, we wouldn't put it past being filled with rocket fuel considering the way he plays.

In an interview, Rice didn't shy away from the amount of money that is in football nowadays. It's always a hot topic, but Rice was quick to mention that it wasn't his driving motivation behind playing.

"The money that’s in football as a whole is just ridiculous,” said Rice. "It makes you more comfortable to be able to do things, but I don’t wake up and think, ‘Oh, I’ve got loads of money.' It’s not the end goal.”

Rice is under contract at Arsenal for another season and a half. His current contract has him as Arsenal's fourth-highest earner - behind William Saliba, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka.

Noni Madueke is Arsenal's most improved player of the season so far. He has improved leaps and bounds, to the point where Arsenal are relying on him to fill the void left behind by Bukayo Saka's absence. Big boots to fill, but Madueke is filling them well.

Speaking after the victory over Hull City, Mikel Arteta praised Madueke for his commitment to improving as a player, both physically and mentally, too.

In his own words, Mikel Arteta said "He’s a great example for the rest of the group because before the first international break he wasn’t playing. And what he did is instead of going on holidays he went to Portugal and got somebody to train with him and got in better shape and condition and immediately he got back into the rhythm. You can see now he is full of confidence and trying things and getting past players and he’s impacting games with goals and assists and we are very happy with that."