The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Aston Villa, Chelsea & Brighton stars among new entries

Every week during the regular season, our journalists watch the tape, comb through the stats and gather round the table for a brief but generally well-mannered argument in order to answer a tricky question: Who is the best young player in the Premier League right now? The result is the Wonderkid Power Rankings, based not on potential or hype but on form at the very highest level of the game.

Last week, Liverpool’s Jérémy Jacquet earned a third consecutive week at the summit of our Top 10, but the chasing pack were gaining ground – so can the Frenchman hang on to top spot, or will one of his challengers take the crown?

Before we find out, we should note the players who are falling out of this week’s rankings. Brighton’s Malick Yalcouyé is back on the bench, Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly slides away after getting just 21 minutes on the field over the Gunners’ last two games, and Harrison Armstrong misses out after a disappointing display in the defeat to Chelsea. Their absence does, of course, create room for three new entries, one of which makes the list for the very first time.

10. Alysson – Aston Villa (new entry)

We’ve had an eye on Alysson’s form since he scored his first Aston Villa goal against Nottingham Forest shortly before the international break, and while he’s been in and out of the team his form has definitely enjoyed something of an upswing. That’s especially true in Europe, where he’s emerged as a genuine creative force on the wing, picking up an assist against Fenerbahçe last week before generating a slew of presentable opportunities during the 3-1 win over Viking on Wednesday evening, in which he was absolutely outstanding. The young Brazilian is starting to find his feet.

9. Kobbie Mainoo – Manchester United (⬇️4)

Injury has robbed Mainoo of the chance of any gametime since our last Power Rankings update, and as such he slides down the table – after all, it’s hard to describe a player as being ‘in form’ when they aren’t even playing. Given that he was in the top five last time out, however, we haven’t punished him too harshly, and hopefully he’ll be back in the mix this weekend.

8. Josh Acheampong – Chelsea (re-entry)

Back in the team after injuries opened up a vacancy at right-back, Acheampong has picked up where he left off with some more impressive work in Chelsea’s defence. He wasn’t faultless at the back and did lose one or two one-on-one duels in potentially dangerous areas, but he did most of defensive work very well, was tidy on the ball and provided a decent amount of attacking impetus for a player who was being used out of position. A solid showing from a player who’s enjoyed a promising start to the campaign.

7. Lewis Miley – Newcastle United (-)

Shoehorned in at right-back once more, as he was on so many occasions last season, Miley had an up-and-down game during the eventual defeat to Aston Villa last weekend – he was excellent supporting the attack and created no fewer than three shooting opportunities, but did struggle to contain Villa’s left wingers at times and was beaten on the run on a few occasions. Miley was excellent on the ball, as always, but hasn’t been at his best defensively of late, either as an emergency full-back or in his natural central midfield position.

6. Jack Hinshelwood – Brighton & Hove Albion (re-entry)

Hinshelwood was our first number one of the new season after he scored two goals against Aston Villa on the opening weekend, but promptly got himself injured and hasn’t been seen since – until now, when he forced his way back into the side and back into our Top 10 with goals in back-to-back games against Kauno Zalgiris and Crystal Palace. That makes it four goals in three appearances, the latest of which was admittedly an almost unmissable tap-in.

5. Josh King – Fulham (⬇️2)

King didn’t really do anything to deserve losing a couple of places during Fulham’s sorely-needed 1-0 win over Hull City, and indeed played an important role in driving the Cottagers’ attack forward in a way that we hadn’t really seen for a few weeks. Ultimately, however, the young number 10 drew another blank while other players in our Top 10 enjoyed more productive weeks, and as such the talented young playmaker falls back a couple of spots.

He still created three shooting chances, as many as anybody else on the field of play, generated 0.32xG’s worth of chances and made some very nice darting forward runs to test and stretch the Hull defence. The only real criticism is that he again allowed himself to be forced too wide inside the opposing penalty area and into less threatening positions as a result – and he also appeared to pick up an injury. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious.

4. Luka Vušković – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️2)

Another player who falls a couple of places less because of any mistakes they made than simply because they had to give way to players who form has been even better – but there is some valid criticism to be made about Vušković’s recent performances in that he has been uncharacteristically poor in one-on-one situations.

In the 5-0 win over Crystal Palace, he was dribbled past twice and won just two of his seven ground duels, which is a slight concern after similar struggles on the floor against Sunderland the previous weekend. Those issues haven’t been costly and he has been so dominant in the air that it hasn’t really mattered all that much (he won 10 headers against Palace, a huge number in a single game) while his knack for being in the right place at the right time has more than made up for any flaws. But he does need to learn to deal with being dribbled at.

3. Jérémy Jacquet – Liverpool (⬇️2)

Jacquet’s run at the top of our table comes to an end after Liverpool’s 4-3 win over Villarreal, a game which featured the young Frenchman’s least convincing display since signing over the summer and contributed to the feeling that he’s been just a little bit less impactful since the international break than he was over the opening weeks of the campaign, when he was consistently dominant.

Jacquet was, in fairness, not directly responsible for any of the goals and made an impressive seven recoveries as he stuck to his task, but much like Vušković did allow ball carriers past him too easily on a couple of occasions, something which also happened over the weekend against nine-man Brentford. The 21-year-old has just been a little bit patchy since the break, but still looks like a very fine acquisition for Liverpool indeed.

2. Charalampos Kostoulas – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬆️2)

The Greek forward continued his fine run of form with a goal and an assist in the rout of Crystal Palace, bringing him up to a total of eight goal contributions for the season already in all competitions. No Power Rankings eligible player has more.

Granted, his goal was straightforward enough – a close-range finish after the ball fell kindly for him to kill an already one-sided game off in the second half – and Yasin Ayari deserves most of the credit for the goal which Kostoulas created with an admittedly clever backheeled flick, but the 19-year-old is constantly in dangerous areas, constantly scoring, and constantly creating.

1. Johan Manzambi – Aston Villa (⬆️5)

It’s rare that a player goes from outside of the Top 10 to first place within a few short weeks, but since summer signing Manzambi came back from injury to claim his place in Aston Villa’s starting line-up he has been simply irresistible – and since the international break he has scored or assisted a goal in every single match.

He was also the match-winner and undisputed star of the show against Newcastle on Saturday, not only doing brilliantly to head home the only goal of the game but finding ways to put himself at the heart of almost every single attacking move that Villa made. Dynamic and dangerous, Manzambi has almost single-handedly reinvigorated his side’s season, and his form has been simply extraordinary.