The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Chelsea & Liverpool stars battle to be named the best in the Premier League

Welcome to 3 Added Minutes’ weekly Wonderkid Power Rankings – our best effort at rating the best young players in the Premier League based on recent form at the senior level.

Last week, Jarrad Branthwaite retook top spot following Rasmus Højlund’s unfortunate injury, but can he cling on after Everton’s 3-1 defeat against West Ham United, or will some other young gun steal in to claim the crown?

This week we lose two players from the top ten in the form of Brighton & Hove Albion’s Facundo Bunonanotte (who, like his team-mates, rather struggled against Fulham) and Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, who struggled to get on the ball against Tottenham Hotspur. Indeed, over the course of 71 minutes, he only touched the thing 15 times. They’ll no doubt be back soon, but in the meantime, let’s find out who replaced them and how everybody lines up…

10. Illia Zabarnyi – Bournemouth (new entry)

The Ukraine defender, signed in the summer from Dynamo Kyiv, has quietly been settling in very nicely on the south coast and while it would be a stretch to say he’s pulled up every tree in Dorset, he’s been consistently solid for a while now and was in fine form again during the 2-0 win over Burnley.

He’s especially good at dealing with direct balls either in the air or over the top and swept no fewer than seven clearances away from the Bournemouth area at Turf Moor, as well as making a couple of fine tackles and generally making sure that any trouble brewing around him was swiftly snuffed out. His passing game could do with some polish, but he’s got all the fundamentals down very nicely and looks like a very useful signing for Andoni Iraola.

9. Kobbie Mainoo – Manchester United (⬇️ 1)

You can’t really blame Mainoo for Sunday’s devastating derby defeat, but he really couldn’t get in the game at all – in 80 minutes, he only touched the ball 28 times. That’s more of an indictment of United’s lack of a plan in possession that it is on him, however, and he performed his defensive duties (of which there were many) admirably.

He made three tackles, charged down a shot on goal and picked off a through ball as well as winning every one-on-one situation he found himself in all afternoon, which you really can’t sniff at. It’s only a shame that he wasn’t able to show us what he can do when he gets hold of the ball.

8. Destiny Udogie – Tottenham Hotspur (re-entry)

Udogie only really dropped out of the top ten because he missed a game through injury before Spurs found themselves with a week off – and a solid comeback game in the 3-1 win over Palace means he gets his deservedly gets his spot back.

In truth, the game did highlight some issues with his skillset, especially in one-on-one situations where he struggled whether he was dribbling forward or he was the one being run at – but he ultimately did a good job with his positioning and movement off the ball and was nice and tidy with possession throughout, with some lovely, crisp passing. A decent game in an excellent campaign.

7. Conor Bradley – Liverpool (⬇️ 1)

Two games for the young Northern Irishman this week as he helped Liverpool through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a 3-0 win over Southampton and played in the last gasp win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday – and he played pretty well all told, although he wasn’t at his very best.

Across the two games he lost possession 39 times, a pretty hefty number which attested to a bit of a drop-off in his usage of the ball going forward, and while he made quite a few fine defensive contributions – five tackles against Forest, for instance – he was also beaten a few times in both games. Given that he’s only a few matches into his senior career, nothing he did was overly worrying, but we’ve already seen that he’s capable of better. An average week for a big talent.

6. Alejandro Garnacho – Manchester United (⬇️ 3)

The bleach-blond Argentine definitely suffered a bit of a drop-off this week. Against Forest in the 1-0 FA Cup win, he couldn’t break United’s opponents down and failed to complete a single cross or long ball, offering very little meaningful threat in the final third. And against City… well, that probably wasn’t his fault.

After a promising opening 20 minutes or so, United barely got the ball anywhere near the front three all game, and as a result Garnacho – who had one chance to dart at the defence early on but couldn’t find a passing angle to play Marcus Rashford in – was basically wandering around aimlessly for large portions of the match. Not his best week.

5. Levi Colwill – Chelsea (-)

Colwill was barely involved in the FA Cup last week, playing 15 minutes against Leeds United and hardly getting near the ball, but did a solid job against Brentford in an otherwise disappointing 2-2 draw.

You could argue that it was a three-star performance by a five-star player, and certainly his distribution of the ball wasn’t as assured as it can be, but he stuck to his defensive duties well and didn’t really put a foot wrong. A solid enough game, so Colwill stays where he is for now.

4. Malo Gusto – Chelsea (⬆️ 3)

In another week, one in which the Premier League’s under-21s had shone a little more brightly, Gusto probably wouldn’t crack the top five, but we’ve decided to be generous after a good attacking display against Brentford which was capped by a superlative cross which set up Nicolas Jackson’s opening goal.

There were mistakes, too, however – he lost track of Sergio Reguilón in the build-up to the Bees’ equaliser and was a little dicey (by his high standards) in the 3-2 win over Leeds in midweek, a game in which he made a ton of tackles but also lost the ball too often. His recent form has generally been excellent and few others around him have really put their hands up, so Gusto gets a bump up the rankings for now.

3. Jarrad Branthwaite – Everton (⬇️ 2)

Even the best players have bad games, and so it is that last week’s number one drops off of top spot after a pretty poor game against West Ham – arguably his worst game of the season, and one in which he failed to make the kind of key interventions that he’s made a habit of in recent months.

Branthwaite didn’t make a single successful tackle over the course of the 3-1 defeat and, very unusually, was beaten in the air repeatedly – he won just three of nine aerial duels, typically one of his strongest suits. Chalk it up to a tough day at the office for a player who has been much, much better than that of late.

2. Harvey Elliott – Liverpool (⬆️ 2)

Elliott hasn’t been getting as much buzz as some of Klopp’s other Kids recently, but the 20-year-old has been consistently excellent of late and was impressive again as he started against both Southampton and Forest.

He picked up an assist in the FA Cup, neatly playing Jayden Danns through for the first of his two goals, and was a constant threat going forward both with his dribbling and passing range in both games. No goal contributions came against Forest but his direct play, in particular, was excellent from start to finish. He’s always been a massively talented player, but he increasingly looks like a very mature one too.

1. Cole Palmer – Chelsea (⬆️ 1)

It’s been a few weeks since we last made Palmer our number one, but he’s made it back to the top after a typical rescue act against Brentford in which he contributed an enormous percentage of Chelsea’s attacking threat and teed up the equalising goal.

Throughout the game, whenever Brentford’s goal was threatened, Palmer was usually involved – either through his dynamic and accurate passing which constantly kept things ticking over, or thanks to his ability to beat his man and get a shot away. He was the best player on the pitch for large periods, certainly the most dangerous and once again begged the obvious question about where on earth Chelsea would be without him. Another England call-up surely beckons at the end of the month.