The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Arsenal young guns impress as Bournemouth boys battle for top spot
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It’s been quite the week for some of the Premier League’s most exciting young talents, with Under-21s up and down the league scoring, shining and putting their names in the headlines – but who is the very best young player in the top flight right now? The weekly Wonderkid Power Rankings are back to figure it all out.
As always, we’ve combined the eye test with the stats, added a dose of our writers’ opinions, and come up with a Top 10 of the most in-form talents in the English game based on their performances over the past month. Last week, Bournemouth’s on-song centre-back Dean Huijsen took top spot for the very first time, but can he stay atop the rankings in spite of the Cherries’ 2-0 defeat to Liverpool?
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Hide AdBefore we find out, we have to say farewell to no fewer than four of last week’s entries as a combination of injury, lack of playing time and poor form take their toll. Carlos Baleba, Bilal El Khannouss and Levi Colwill all slide out of the reckoning for the time being, while Rico Lewis, who has been a staple of the top five for most of the season, joins them on the outside after spending another week languishing on the bench. How the mighty have fallen. Anyway, that means room for two re-entries and two brand new entries, so let’s find out who’s made our brand new Top 10…
10. Kobbie Mainoo – Manchester United (re-entry)
Before things all went spectacularly downhill under Erik ten Hag (and then continued rolling into an unexpectedly deep valley under Ruben Amorim) Mainoo was undeniably one of the very best young players in England and, as you might expect, a regular star of this countdown. Sadly, he has been something of a passenger over the last couple of months, struggling to adapt to his new manager’s system, not playing especially badly but not impacting games as he would like. In truth he looked like a fish out of water again playing as a number ten in the dismal defeat to Crystal Palace – but it was a pleasure to see him flash his undoubted class in the Europa League win over FCSB, scoring one and teeing up the other as the Red Devils enjoyed some light relief from their recent poor form. More of that, please, Kobbie.
9. Ethan Nwaneri – Arsenal (new entry)
The prodigiously talented winger has been handed a chance to shine by Bukayo Saka’s injury and while a knock of his own meant that the pace of his grand unveiling has been a little slower than anticipated, his screamer against Manchester City should ensure that anyone who didn’t know his name has it lodged in their memory for the foreseeable future – especially given that it followed hot on the heels of an even better strike against Girona in the Champions League, when the 17-year-old showed admirable patience and impressive technique to carve out a chance to curl the ball inside the far post. An astonishing talent just starting to show us what he can do.
8. Liam Delap – Ipswich Town (RE)
Delap started the season like a steam engine but had rather fallen away, failing to score from open play since early November before he bagged the Tractor Boys’ only goal against Southampton on Saturday. It was a superb striker’s goal, too, with a burst of pace allowing him to win the ball ahead of a startled defender before he slotted home with a cool finish. One goal, no matter how good, wouldn’t always be enough to earn a player a Top 10 spot but we also felt it was only fair to give Delap a chance to say goodbye – he turns 22 this week and will now age out of Wonderkid Power Rankings contention. As a player who’s spent a decent chunk of time in these columns, he deserved a send-off.
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Hide Ad7. Myles Lewis-Skelly – Arsenal (NE)
The second young Gunner to crack the Top 10 this week, Lewis-Skelly’s excellent outing in the 5-1 thrashing of Manchester City ensured that he made headlines for reasons other than a red card controversy – and he earned justified plaudits for his composed defending, cracking goal and entertaining celebration. A little light disrespect makes the footballing world go around and let’s be honest, he was only turning the tables after Emmanul Adebayor all those years ago. But Lewis-Skelly is more than just an eyebrow-raising celebration, and whispers of an England call-up may not be too premature.
6. Savinho – Manchester City (-)
We had a hard time figuring out how to rank the Brazilian winger this week. On the one hand, he was largely unimpressive both in the defeat at the Emirates and in the Champions League win over Club Brugge, often drifting out of the game and struggling to make headway with the ball at his feet – but when he did find space and time to make something happen, he did it quite brilliantly. His instinctive one-touch control and finish to score against Brugge was impressive and he had another effort cleared off the line, while his pitching wedge-style cross for Erling Haaland’s equaliser against Arsenal was inch-perfect. We’ve sat on the fence a little and kept Savinho sixth.
5. Lucas Bergvall – Tottenham Hotspur (⬇️1)
Technically – very technically indeed – the young Swedish midfielder picked up an ‘assist’ against Elfsborg in the Europa League, although his bobbled pass to Mikey Moore did require the winger to win a fifty-fifty and run half the length of the field to score a stunning solo goal in order to qualify as a goal contribution. Still, Bergvall deserves a few statistical breaks.
He was excellent, yet again, against Elfsborg, running significant sections of the show with his precise passing range and ability to figure out where to move the ball in order to keep possession ticking over, and while he only played 45 relatively quiet minutes in the 2-0 win over Brentford, he can still look back on another very solid week of football.
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Hide Ad4. Lewis Hall – Newcastle United (⬇️1)
Hall has spent more weeks at the top of our table than any other player this season (only the now-departed Jhon Durán comes close) but he’s just hit a slightly sticky patch of form over the past few weeks – and while he wasn’t by any means bad against Fulham, he still wasn’t quite as impactful as he’s capable of being.
At the back, Hall was only responsible for one tackle but didn’t make any ricks, managed to block a couple of shots and generally did his job well enough despite the eventual scoreline – and going forward he offered the occasional bit of useful width but only completed one cross and wasn’t as creative and as accurate with his final ball as he has been at his best. Not bad, by any means, but not great either.
3. Milos Kerkez – Bournemouth (⬇️1)
Speaking of lavishly-talented left-backs who didn’t enjoy their best week of Premier League football, there were times when Kerkez, much like his team as a whole, looked just a little out of his depth against an admittedly excellent Liverpool side.
There were some definite positives, and the Hungarian did some fine work cutting out balls in behind the Bournemouth defence, but there were some awkward errors in there and he failed to make any headway in the attacking third whatsoever, missing the target with all his crosses and failing to tee up a single shooting chance. Not such a bad game that he needs to drop too far down our table, but not his best week at the office either.
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Hide Ad2. Mateus Fernandes – Southampton (⬆️3)
We can’t help but be a little confused by the lack of attention that Fernandes has been getting of late – the Saints’ summer signing has been brilliant with a struggling side and his all-round game seems to flesh out further with every passing week. He’s the beating heart of his team, and it’s getting hard to imagine how bad things would be for Southampton without him.
His passing, especially over distance, has been impressive since he arrived at St. Mary’s, but the 2-1 win over Ipswich demonstrated so much growth in other areas. He was carrying the ball superbly well, driving through the Tractor Boys’ midfield and drawing fouls or creating space on a regular basis, and when out of possession his defensive work was exceptional – he racked up five successful tackles and won nine one-on-one ground duels. A massively underappreciated player who is both a workhorse and a wonderfully elegant creative force.
1. Dean Huijsen – Bournemouth (-)
Bournemouth’s impressive run of form may have hit an impenetrable barrier in the shape of Liverpool on Saturday, but no fair judge would blame Huijsen for the 2-0 defeat, and we haven’t seen any reason to take his title of the best young player in the Premier League away from him.
The Spaniard was just as imperious at the back as usual, making four tackles and blocking a threatening shot on goal, and wasn’t dribbled past once despite the dynamism of Liverpool’s front three – the only problem for Bournemouth was that Huijsen couldn’t be everywhere at once. Consistently outstanding since breaking into Andoni Iraola’s first team (and with a lack of real pressure from those immediately behind him) Huijsen makes it two deserved weeks at the top.
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