The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Arsenal and Man City starlets rise as Crystal Palace gem gatecrashes podium

Once again, our team of writers has watched all the tape and combed through the stats to come up with our ranking of the ten best young players in the Premier League right now based not on their potential or level of talent, but on how well they’re playing at the very highest level.

Last week, Brentford’s consistently impressive Michael Kayode was named number one for the very first time after knocking the injured Adam Wharton off of top spot – but could Kayode play well enough against Fulham to hold on, or will another contender take the crown?

We’ll get to that very shortly, but before we start we always take a moment to explain why players drop out of the Power Rankings, and this week two have done so – Brighton & Hove Albion’s Brajan Gruda, who hasn’t found his best form since the international break, and Liverpool’s Rio Ngumoha, who simply isn’t spending enough time on the pitch. That leaves room for one brand new entry and for another player to reclaim their place in the Top 10…

10. Lucas Bergvall – Tottenham Hotspur (⬇️5)

One of several players to get two games in the past week, Bergvall was solid if not wildly impactful in the Champions League against Villarreal but then made a bit of a hash of things against Brighton, giving the ball away badly to let Yasin Ayari in to make it 2-0 to the Seagulls. He played well enough outside of that and was typically tenacious and lively, but didn’t do enough in the final third to make up for his howler and drops five places as a result.

9. Yasin Ayari – Brighton & Hove Albion (re-entry)

Speaking of Ayari… the young Swede has been in very decent form of late and while he was less effective than usual in one-on-ones against Spurs and wasn’t able to break the lines with the ball at his feet despite several efforts, he did make up for that by scoring a brilliant goal and showed off his impressive passing range on a few occasions. The 21-year-old has been trending back upwards since a rough match against Everton earlier in the season, but won’t be in the rankings for more than another week, as he turns 22 in a fortnight’s time. He’s going out in style, at this rate.

8. Leny Yoro – Manchester United (⬇️4)

After a very promising start to the season, Yoro’s form is just starting to fall away a little bit. Following a rough ride against Manchester City, he was given just 20 minutes against Chelsea and although only involved often enough to touch the ball eight times, he contrived to give the ball to the opposition four times with a mixture of failed long passes and a failed attempt at a dribble. Yoro needs a decent game next weekend, or he might be out of the Top 10 for a little while.

7. Nico O’Reilly – Manchester City (new entry)

An increasingly impressive run at left-back has allowed O’Reilly to establish himself in our rankings for the first time this season and he was equally impressive against both Napoli and Arsenal over the last seven days. His defensive work has been excellent, he didn’t miss a single tackle and there were flashes of his technical class and dynamic qualities down the wing even in games in which Pep Guardiola played in an uncharacteristically conservative manner. O’Reilly will probably rotate in and out a fair bit over the course of the season, but he deserves a long run in the first team based on recent evidence.

6. Abdukodir Khusanov – Manchester City (⬆️1)

Speaking of young Manchester City players who have earned a run of starts despite playing out of position, Uzbek defender Khusanov has been pretty excellent of late as well and continued a very solid string of performances with an error-free 45 minutes against Arsenal and a surprisingly enterprising performance in the Champions League in which he spent most of the match camped in the opposing half, knocking passes around like he was Kevin de Bruyne.

5. Yankuba Minteh – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬆️4)

The Gambian winger isn’t the most consistent player in the Premier League but when he’s on his best form, he can be scintillating watch – unless, perhaps, you’re one of the Spurs defenders left trailing in his wake as he latches on to a long ball from Georginio Rutter, or the helpless goalkeeper being coolly rounded before the finishing touch.

Minteh can drift in and out of games a little, but he’s been devastating when given a sniff of a chance lately, he’s looked lethal when running with the ball and has been effective when pressing and tracking back, too. If he can make performances like this the default, then he’ll be quite a player.

4. Noah Sadiki – Sunderland (⬇️1)

Without being at his absolute best against Aston Villa or at his most involved, Sadiki still made his presence felt throughout the 1-1 draw, using the ball well when in possession and hassling and harrying a discombobulated Villa midfield when out of it.

Sadiki didn’t get everything right and was booked for a pretty blatant pull of an opponent’s shirt, and nor was this a monstrous statistical performance replete with endless turnovers and tackles, but it was another solid week of grit and hard graft, and more evidence that Sunderland found at least one gem in their extraordinary transfer window.

3. Michael Kayode – Brentford (⬇️2)

Kayode followed up his first appearance at the top of our countdown with one of his weaker performances as a Brentford player against Fulham. Solid enough in defence and one-on-one against Fulham’s wide players, he struggled to make any inroads going forward and wasn’t his usual dynamic self down the flank.

The Italian, who also came on as a late substitute against Villa in the EFL Cup but didn’t have time to do much, was also profligate with possession and gave the ball away 20 times. An unusually poor performance and one which didn’t do much to turn the tide against an admittedly impressive Fulham side.

2. Cristhian Mosquera – Arsenal (-)

Although the Colombian centre-back found himself back on the bench against Manchester City with the return of William Saliba from injury, he had time for one more start and one more rock steady display against Athletic Club in the Champions League before relinquishing his place in the first eleven.

Mosquera was, admittedly, beaten on the run a couple of times and that may have given Mikel Arteta enough of an excuse to put him back on the bench, but he also demonstrated more excellent positioning (resulting in six clearances) and was superb on the ball, barely giving the ball away and providing a solid base for Arsenal’s eventual win.

1. Adam Wharton – Crystal Palace (⬆️5)

Having fallen down into the bottom half of our Top 10 solely because he missed a week of matches through injury, Wharton has returned to full fitness and to the peak of our Power Rankings after impressing yet again in Crystal Palace’s win over West Ham United.

Wharton won every one-on-one, made several important defensive interventions and supplied several excellent chances with his precise passing and eye for a through ball. It was his lofted pass that ultimately fell to Tyrick Mitchell for the winning goal, and his superb corner which was headed against the bar by Maxence Lacroix in the first half. Wharton was, yet again, quite brilliant. One gripe, however – he was one of a couple of Palace players caught dozing at the near post for Jarrod Bowen’s equaliser. Still, he made up for that lapse later and was crucial to another win.