The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Arsenal & Man Utd starlets battling with Bournemouth boys at the top

Welcome to 3 Added Minutes’ weekly Wonderkid Power Rankings – our countdown of the ten best young players in the Premier League right now based on their form, stats and our writers’ opinions.

Last week, Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly took top spot for the very first time not long after making his dream England debut, but can he hang on despite costing his side two points against Everton this weekend? We’ll find out very shortly.

For once, not a single player dropped out of our Top 10 but we should note that it was a close, with a couple of players like Chelsea’s Malo Gusto knocking on the door to get in. Next week, perhaps…

10. Lucas Bergvall – Tottenham Hotspur (⬇️3)

Maybe it was just the ease with which Spurs were able to control the game against now-relegated Southampton on Sunday, or maybe it’s because he spent too much time having to handle Mateus Fernandes (more on him later…) but Bergvall didn’t seem to be at his best and was unusually lax off the ball. The Swede struggled in one-on-one situations and coughed up four fouls in an uncharacteristically iffy outing. Still solid in possession, but he hasn’t looked super sharp since missing the international break through illness.

9. Ethan Nwaneri – Arsenal (⬇️4)

After impressing in midweek, Nwaneri tumbles back down our rankings thanks to an essentially anonymous performance in the 1-1 draw against Everton. It wasn’t so much that the 18-year-old did anything wrong, so much as that he didn’t really do anything at all. Left isolated and unable to carve out some space for himself, Nwaneri was hooked at half-time.

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

O’Reilly hung on to his starting place for a third consecutive game and continues to look like pretty good value, with some nice touches and passes briefly enlivening an otherwise monstrously dull derby draw against Manchester United. Seldom troubled too much at the back, O’Reilly was solid in possession and while he was no more able to open the game up than anybody else on the pitch, it was a good enough outing to stand firm in the Top 10.

7. Jack Hinshelwood – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬆️2)

It may have been a bad weekend for Brighton on a team level, losing to rivals Palace no matter how many players they had sent off, but Hinshelwood had a pretty solid outing in a right wing-back role he’s starting to get used to. The England Under-21 international only lost a single one-on-one battle all game, forced four turnovers and generally offered calm and astute cover down the right. Nothing much doing in the final third and he was pinned back by Palace for large periods, but a solid outing on a personal level.

6. Yankuba Minteh – Brighton & Hove Albion (-)

A Brighton one-two in the lower reaches of mid-table here, and we now arrive at one of the reasons Hinshelwood spent a lot of time stuck in the defensive third – Minteh has improved his defensive output dramatically over the course of recent months but regressed on Sunday, leaving too much space in behind and failing to press effectively. That’s why he doesn’t climb our ladder despite the luscious cross which teed Danny Welbeck up for the equalising goal. Fabulous delivery, though.

5. Mateus Fernandes – Southampton (⬆️5)

Southampton may have slumped into the second tier but Fernandes, who did everything he could to carry the Saints single-handedly through the winter, seems to have found a second wind.

He worked endlessly hard off the ball, racking up six tackles on Spurs’ otherwise comfortable midfield, dribbled dangerously through the centre of the park on a number of occasions, played some lovely passes and, most importantly, kept his cool to find a pocket of space and slot home what proved to be a consolation goal. A silver lining to a colossal cloud of a season on the south coast.

4. Patrick Dorgu – Manchester United (-)

Only Bruno Fernandes managed to create more chances for his Manchester United team-mate during Sunday’s dreadful derby encounter and while that doesn’t amount to a vast list of shooting opportunities, Dorgu’s energy and dynamism have been a welcome addition to a staid United attack.

It will take more than the young Dane’s knack for finding and exploiting space to get Ruben Amorim’s side scoring again, but he’s one of very few players in red emerging from recent weeks with much credit. A little more discipline in defence wouldn’t hurt, and he was beaten on the run a few too many times for comfort, but Dorgu has still been comfortably only of United’s best players since he arrived.

3. Myles Lewis-Skelly – Arsenal (⬇️2)

Lewis-Skelly would have made a pretty strong case for staying on the top of our rankings if it weren’t for one very costly clanger in the second half, but you can’t concede a penalty in such clumsy fashion – getting caught ball-watching and then clattering through the back of the man who got goal side of you – and not lose some places in the rankings.

The spot-kick ended up costing Arsenal two precious points, but outside of that Lewis-Skelly was very good again, using the ball well, defending tidily and showing perhaps a little more willingness to try something with the ball at his feet than has typically been the case. Unfortunately, one rare moment in which his profound inexperience showed through means he can’t cling on to the number one spot.

2. Milos Kerkez – Bournemouth (⬆️1)

Kerkez is maybe a little fortunate to get an arrow pointing upwards this week, because the Hungarian endured something of a game of two personal halves – in defence, he was excellent despite his side shipping two goals against West Ham, but in attack he was far from his best.

It was less that Aaron Wan-Bissaka kept him quiet than it was that he just couldn’t pick a final ball. All five attempted crosses missed their targets and just one of Kerkez’s seven attempted long passes found a team-mate. Still, he managed five tackles, two interceptions, and let precious little past him, and as defending is still a pretty important part of a full-back’s job even if the modern age of football, he gets a slight bump.

1. Dean Huijsen – Bournemouth (⬆️1)

All of which means that imperious Spain international Huijsen finds himself back on top of our rankings for the umpteenth time in 2025 after (another) fine display against West Ham which included an assist.

As anyone who saw his magnificent pass to set up a goal for Spain during the international break already knows, Huijsen has quite a passing range on him and he demonstrated it quite a few times at the London Stadium, but it was his sheer height that earned him a goal contribution this time, nodding a deep ball back across goal for Evanilson to tap in.

At the back, meanwhile, it was the usual story – plenty of clearances as his uncanny positional sense once again made sure he seemed to be in the right spot at the right time, and rock solid tackling when it was required. There’s a reason Liverpool and Real Madrid both want him, and a reason he keeps bouncing back to be our number one.