The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Arsenal gem shakes up the podium as Man United starlet drops out

It may be a little later in the week than normal due to the unusual schedule – but the Wonderkid Power Rankings is back to work out who the very best young player in the Premier League is right now.

As usual, we’ve combed through the tape and double-checked all the stats to work out who the most in-form Under-21s in the top flight are right now, and we’ll see if anyone can unseat last week’s number one, Dean Huijsen, after Bournemouth lost two on the bounce.

Two players dropped out of this week’s Top 10 – Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, who was rather below par against Fulham and Southampton, and Spurs winger Wilson Odobert, who didn’t make much of a dent in the defeat to Chelsea. Anyway, on with this week’s rankings…

10. Mateus Fernandes – Southampton (re-entry)

The Portuguese midfielder has quietly been the Saints’ best player this season but his form has slid away a little of late – but he picked it back up as Southampton earned a point away to Palace, providing the assist for Paul Onuachu’s goal with a clever one-two and a perfectly-placed cross in between two defenders. There was plenty of good work off the ball as well, and after a quiet month or so, it’s good to see a burgeoning box-to-box talent improving again.

9. Jack Hinshelwood – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️4)

It was a bit of a nightmare week for the unfortunate youngster, who has performed admirably filling in at right wing-back for the most part, but who neither found it easy at the back nor was able to get much going in attack in defeats to Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa. The cherry on top of a pretty terrible cake was missing a penalty in the FA Cup shootout defeat to Forest, while he was very lucky not to give one away against Villa after a clumsy challenge on Jacob Ramsey. Not Hinshelwood’s best week, sadly.

8. Nico O’Reilly – Manchester City (re-entry)

Traditionally, here’s what happens – O’ Reilly plays in the FA Cup, does quite brilliantly, looks like the best player on the pitch, and then immediately gets dropped until the next round. But not this time! Finally, O’Reilly’s cup heroics (this time a superb 45-minute display against Bournemouth) were rewarded with a league start, and he repaid that decision with a dynamic and defensively solid showing against Leicester City. Let’s hope for more starts going forward.

7. Lucas Bergvall – Tottenham Hotspur (-)

No move for Bergvall this week after a solid but ultimately less than effective shift in the 1-0 loss to Chelsea. There was plenty of strong work off the ball and his three interceptions represented pretty good work in defence, but he didn’t get the chance to get the ball down and play very often, ultimately making just 17 attempted passes. A quiet sort of game, but it says something about Bergvall’s recent form that Spurs fans booed when he was taken off in the second half.

6. Yankuba Minteh - Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️2)

Minteh but in a strong if ultimately frustrated shift against Forest in the FA Cup, working overtime to find space up the field and making six tackles as he tracked back but failing to make any meaningful impact on the final result. After 120 minutes of hard and fruitless yards, Minteh was benched for the defeat to Villa in midweek.

5. Ethan Nwaneri – Arsenal (⬆️5)

A combination of Nwaneri’s lively performance, his fine assist and mediocrity elsewhere in the lower reaches of our table allows the teenager to make a big leap up the table following the 2-1 win over Fulham, in which he played a pivotal part before making way for the returning Bukayo Saka.

Saka’s comeback may restrict Nwaneri’s chances going forward but he showed his class on a few occasions against the Cottagers, in particular when his excellent movement off the ball permitted him to carve out space for a cut-back into the path of Mikel Merino, all of which led to the opening goal of the game.

4. Patrick Dorgu - Manchester United (⬆️2)

It’s almost getting a little tiring to talk about how poor Manchester United are these days, but it looks like they’ve got one thing right at least – signing Dorgu is starting to look like the first good idea of the Ineos era.

The young Dane’s movement and willingness to try and create something, be it space for a shooting chance or room to get a ball in from the byline, gave United perhaps their single biggest attacking outlet of the game against Nottingham Forest, and it was his sharp run and cross which gave Harry Maguire a gaping open goal to miss. Also handy in one-on-one situations on both sides of the ball, Dorgu looks like a good find. The other ten players, on the other hand…

3. Milos Kerkez – Bournemouth (-)

No movement for Kerkez this week – the Hungarian, who has been heavily linked with a move to Liverpool, was suspended for the FA Cup defeat to Manchester City and while entirely decent in defeat to Ipswich Town, wasn’t able to make his usual difference at either end of the pitch.

The left-back got into a lot of good areas going forward but the final ball was lacking for once, and he completed just two of his seven attempted crosses for the sum total of 0.06 expected assists. Kerkez was mostly very tidy defending down his flank and was only beaten on the run once, but in the end it was a solid shift that didn’t impact the final result.

2. Dean Huijsen – Bournemouth (⬇️1)

For once, Huijsen had a bad week. Not just because he, like Kerkez, missed out on an FA Cup quarter-final through suspension, and not just because the Cherries’ defeat to Ipswich really does seem to have marked the end of a run of fine form, but because he finally had a game where he simply didn’t play that well.

The towering young Spain international did a lot of his usual excellent work sweeping up behind the Bournemouth line, but was beaten on the run on a couple of occasions, lost the majority of his one-on-one duels, got booked and perhaps looked a little silly trying to slide in on Nathan Broadhead ahead of Ipswich’s opening goal. Although not actually at fault for either of the goals, this just wasn’t Huijsen’s best day, although his recent form still puts him right at the top of our table and will likely keep him there a while longer.

1. Myles Lewis-Skelly – Arsenal (⬆️1)

It was neck-and-neck between Lewis-Skelly and Huijsen for the number one spot last week but with the Spaniard struggling a little this time out, some space has been created for the Arsenal (and now England) youngster to take our top spot for the very first time.

It might be a gentle reach to say that Lewis-Skelly was outstanding against Fulham but it was yet another rock solid and deeply mature display – completing all but two of his passes, winning virtually every fifty-fifty, and always offering a sensible passing option in midfield. It’s fair to say that he was neither overly stretched in defence nor did much stretching of Fulham, but he did his job with a calm, composed ease. At the age of just 18, he’s making both his club and country better.