The Premier League Panel: Is Fabian Schär the best bargain in PL history?
Ranking the best young players in the Premier League right now - with Chelsea & Manchester City wonderkids making their mark this week.
After another weekend of top-flight action, we’ve sat down once more to watch the tape and comb through the stats to pass judgement on some of the most gifted players in England – all to compile our weekly list of the Top 10 best young players in the Premier League right now.
Last week, Brentford’s Michael Kayode reclaimed top spot after a highly impressive outing against Liverpool, but can the Italian wing-back keep the throne after the Bees’ 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace? Or will one of his rivals sweep in to take command of our rankings?
We only say farewell to one player this week: Chelsea’s Josh Acheampong had a relatively rough ride against Wolves in the EFL Cup in midweek and was then dropped for the win over Spurs, so he loses his spot. We’re sure he’ll be back eventually, and perhaps it’s some consolation that one of his team-mates took his spot…
10. Jamie Gittens – Chelsea (new entry)
It’s tricky to assess Gittens’ first few months at Stamford Bridge – there has been a lot of bad, not least a terrible miss late on against Spurs on Saturday, but while we haven’t seen his best in the Premier League as yet his form in cup competitions has been very impressive and he was brilliant in the 4-3 win at Molineux last week, creating two goals (the assist for Tyrique George’s goal was especially fine) and scoring a brilliant late winner with the outside of his boot. The talent is there, and the consistency should come. He now has two goals and four assists in his last seven games for Chelsea and England’s Under-21s.
9. Lesley Ugochukwu – Burnley (⬇️4)
A former Chelsea youngster himself, Ugochukwu has been impressive as an attacking midfielder for Burnley but found himself deployed wide right against Arsenal and cut a pretty peripheral figure in an unfamiliar position – he only touched the ball 21 times and while he completed every pass he couldn’t get anything going himself and was restricted to knocking the ball back to team-mates tamely, failing to make a dent when he tried to beat a man. A quiet weekend after a strong run of form.
8. Eli Junior Kroupi – Bournemouth (⬇️4)
Kroupi’s red-hot streak in front of goal came to an abrupt end at the Etihad this weekend, with the teenager failing to convert two reasonably presentable chances – scuffing one effort wide at the near post and forcing a save from Gianluigi Donnarumma when he maybe could have found the corner in a more central area. He’s still getting into open spaces against strong defences, at the very least.
7. Estevão Willian – Chelsea (⬆️2)
Estevão was a late and relatively anonymous sub against Spurs over the weekend but got on the scoresheet against Wolves with a gorgeous chipped finish after fellow Brazilian talent Andrey Santos forced one of the centre-halves into a mistake. Estevão, like Gittens, hasn’t been a completely consistent contributor as yet but the raw talent and touch is evident.
6. Adam Wharton – Crystal Palace (⬇️4)
Wharton slides into the bottom half of the table after illness ruled him out of Palace’s 2-0 win over Brentford. His recent form has been more than strong enough that he doesn’t deserve to slide too far for taking a weekend off, and we wouldn’t be shocked to see him heading back towards the upper echelons of our rankings once he’s hale and hearty again.
5. Yankuba Minteh – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬆️5)
The Gambian winger’s form has been all over the place of late – after an excellent run of games he put in his worst performance of the season last weekend against Manchester United and wasn’t able to get anything going against Arsenal in midweek, but then followed that downturn by taking Leeds United’s defence to pieces at the Amex Stadium.
He picked up an assist for one of Diego Gómez’s goals after turning Gabriel Gudmundsson inside out down the flank, and came within an inch of scoring himself when he dummied his way into space inside the area only to fire agonisingly wide of the right-hand post. He tormented Gudmundsson repeatedly, set up several scoring chances and looked at his fiery best throughout. Much more like it.
4. Mateus Fernandes – West Ham United (⬆️4)
The box-to-box midfielder is used to being one of the few consistent performers on a struggling team after his work with Southampton last season and he’s been making use of the experience since being signed by West Ham – he got on the scoresheet in defeat last week, and this time got to contribute to a winning effort against Newcastle.
He picked up an assist with a simple pass for Lucas Paquetá’s superb equaliser – one of three shooting chances he created – did plenty of strong work out of possession right up and down the pitch, and maybe could have scored had he finished a chance with nine minutes left a little more convincingly.
3. Nico O’Reilly – Manchester City (⬆️4)
O’Reilly’s form has waned a little after an outstanding run before the October international break, but he was back to his best against Bournemouth, not only scoring an excellent goal but also impressing in one-on-one situations in defence, an area in which he had been struggling a little of late.
The solid defensive work won’t make the highlight reel, of course, but his game-sealing goal will, and the 20-year-old showed good composure and patience to wait for a Bournemouth defender to sell himself and offer the opening for O’Reilly to shoot under his leg and into the far corner. O’Reilly started his career as an attacking midfielder, and it showed in that moment.
2. Noah Sadiki – Sunderland (⬆️1)
Sadiki didn’t have the best start to Monday night’s 1-1 draw with Everton. He was beaten to the ball one-on-one just before Iliman Ndiaye’s wonderful opening goal, and then let frustration get the better of him just moments later when he was rightly booked for a rash and ridiculous challenge on James Garner – but the Congolese midfielder screwed his head back on, went to work and ended up being one of Sunderland’s better players.
His passing was superb, creating one presentable opportunity and easing the ball away from Everton and into space repeatedly in the defensive third and he recovered possession an impressive nine times when doing his defensive duties. Sadiki may have moments in which his inexperience betrays itself, but his work on and off the ball is making him look like one of the signings of the summer so far.
1. Michael Kayode – Brentford (-)
In a week in which most of the players closest to Kayode in our rankings struggled and those who impressed started from further out, the Italian was allowed a bit of breathing room at the top and he holds on to his crown despite a relatively ordinary week on the field.
Kayode enjoyed a straightforward 20-minute run-out in the EFL Cup against Grimsby Town but found it tougher going against Palace. Unable to get much traction going forward and beaten once or twice on the run in defence (he ended up winning just half of his one-on-one duels and didn’t complete a successful cross or tackle), Kayode was eventually taken off in the second half. There was still some good in there with six ball recoveries and several important clearances, but this wasn’t quite the same Kayode we saw against Liverpool or West Ham. Overall, however, none of the chasing pack made a strong enough case to be made number one – so as the Power Rankings heads into hibernation for the international break, Kayode gets two more weeks at the top.
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