The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Villa, Chelsea & Man City starlets fighting for first place

Welcome to the Wonderkid Power Rankings, our weekly effort to rank the ten most in-form young players in the Premier League. Since our last top ten, we’ve had a slew of European games and another round of top-flight matches to pore over, and that’s two chances for a lot of our players to prove that they should be given top spot ahead of reigning number one Jhon Durán.

The Colombian striker has held on to first place for three weeks on the bounce, but can he make it four on the trot ahead of the international break as he celebrates signing a new contract at Villa Park? Or will one of our other wonderkids impress enough to knock him down a peg or two?

Either way, we have to say a temporary farewell to one member of last week’s rankings – Alejandro Garnacho drops out to make room for a new entry. It’s tricky to assess the Argentine’s form right now because he’s so often Manchester United’s liveliest attacking player, but he’s also failing to generate any sort of end product. Somebody had to go, and as last week’s number ten, we decided that Garnacho will have to spend at least one week on the outside looking in.

10. Destiny Udogie – Tottenham Hotspur (⬇️3)

Udogie can probably thank his lucky stars that we decided to jettison Garnacho, because the Italian full-back came close to losing his spot for his role in Tottenham Hotspur’s undignified collapse against Brighton & Hove Albion – which included being distinctly culpable for one of the goals when his ill-coordinated flap at the far post served an easy chance up to Yankuba Minteh. He was good enough in the first half (and in recent weeks more generally) to save his spot for now, though.

9. Facundo Buonanotte – Leicester City (re-entry)

The on-loan Argentine had spent a bit of time warming the bench at the King Power Stadium despite a strong start to the season, but he’s back in the starting side and back to his best now. An assist against Arsenal last weekend was followed by a superb individual goal against Bournemouth on Saturday which proved to be the winner – cutting inside from the right flank, he slalomed past a defender with ease before smashing the ball into the roof of the net. A quite brilliant strike.

8. Carlos Baleba – Brighton & Hove Albion (-)

A non-mover this week, Baleba played nicely against Spurs in a game which often bypassed the Brighton midfield for large periods – the Cameroonian moved the ball around nicely when he did get hold of it and was solid when called upon in defence, picking up a combined five tackles and interceptions and doing some good work in one-on-one situations when things threatened to get out of hand in the first half. The only blot in his copybook was the fact that he committed three fouls, which is a little on the high side.

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

By way of comparison, Baleba’s midfield partner struggled to get much traction in this game. The versatile 19-year-old can’t be said to have done a great deal wrong over the course of the game, but equally he was hardly involved for large periods – despite playing the full 90, he only touched the ball 38 times, didn’t make a single tackle and in truth barely made a telling contribution at all. That’s two quiet games on the bounce after a long run of excellent form, so Hinshelwood’s position may well be under long-term threat if he doesn’t pick it up again. For now, though, he holds his place happily enough.

6. Liam Delap – Ipswich Town (⬆️ 3)

The former Manchester City forward made it three goals in two games at the London Stadium this weekend, showing great tenacity to win the ball at the back post following a set piece before smashing it low past Alphonse Aréola. Ipswich Town ended up losing 4-1, unfortunately, but Delap’s impressive form in front of goal offers hope that the Suffolk side can score the goals required to make a good fist of the relegation battle.

5. Kobbie Mainoo – Manchester United (⬇️1)

The young midfielder was rested for the ding-dong 3-3 draw with Porto in the Europa League but was back for the rather less thrilling 0-0 draw against Aston Villa on Sunday, and put in what can probably be fairly described as the median Mainoo performance before coming off with a knock which will now keep him out of England’s Nations League matches.

There were several accurate vertical passes, a couple of nice carries which helped to get the ball forward towards the opposing goal, and a couple of well-timed challenges when out of possession, but ultimately there were no clear-cut chances created, no massive amount of threat generated and a couple of lost duels in defence, too. Not a bad performance, rather one which was acceptable, fine, 6/10.

4. Levi Colwill – Chelsea (⬆️ 2)

The Chelsea centre-half has been slowly working his way up our rankings for weeks now, never putting in a particularly astonishing performance but putting in spotless, rock solid showings week in, week out, a trend he continued in the 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest.

There were several key interventions and clearances and he was as composed and fluid on the ball as ever, passing the ball neatly and carrying out of defence with relative ease all game. He probably wasn’t many fans’ man of the match, but he’s been doing pretty much everything right for a while now.

3. Lewis Hall – Newcastle United (-)

Hall hangs on to third place less because he had a particularly brilliant outing against Everton – although there were plenty of flashes of quality – and more because nobody below him really earned such a lofty position this week. This was a decent but relatively unremarkable performance.

The good mostly came with the ball at his feet, with some excellent passes down the flank and a couple of dangerous crosses. The less good mostly came in defence, when he lost a couple of one-on-one scraps in potentially problematic areas. When it all came down to it though, he was just decent, good going forward without finding an end product while occasionally scratchy heading back towards his own goal but never causing any major issues.

2. Jhon Durán – Aston Villa (⬇️1)

Is it harsh to drop Durán down from top spot after three weeks despite the fact that he scored the winning goal against Bayern Munich, Villa’s first Champions League win four decades? Yes. Is it especially harsh when you consider that the goal, an instinctive chipped finish from outside the box, was quite brilliant? Also yes. Do we have excuses for it? Sure.

Some of our excuse is that the 20-year-old was below par against Manchester United over the weekend, rendered almost anonymous over the course of his 30 minutes on the pitch and failing to get a shot of any kind away. While his goalscoring form from the bench has been quite astonishing, he hasn’t been contributing much to the build-up or broader gameplan of late. But mostly, our excuse is just that this week’s brand new number one was, overall, probably slightly better…

1. Rico Lewis – Manchester City (⬆️ 1)

Two games and two assists for the generously-coiffured utility man this week, and he was especially magnificent against Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League last Tuesday, when he set one goal up with a gloriously-weighted through-ball for Erling Haaland, but could have set up three or four. He was everywhere, ghosting into space and seemingly untouchable for the Slovan defence, and generating chance after chance.

He could have scored himself, too, but then finishing seems to be the one arrow that he doesn’t really have in his quiver. He was excellent against Fulham, too, forcing a ton of turnovers in a strong defensive shift and teeing Jérémy Doku up for what proved to be the decisive goal of the game. Lewis is on sizzling form and coming into his own just when his side need him most. Rodri who?