The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Chelsea, Newcastle & West Ham youngsters impressplaceholder image
The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Chelsea, Newcastle & West Ham youngsters impress | Getty Images
Ranking the ten best young players in the Premier League right now, with Chelsea, Newcastle and West Ham starlets among this week’s best performers.
Another week of Premier League and European football is in the books, and that means that it’s once again time for our journalists to watch the tape, pore over the stats and gather round to discuss who is the best young player in England right now based not on their potential, but on their form and performances at the very highest level of the game.
Last week, Brentford’s Michael Kayode extended his run at the top of our Wonderkid Power Rankings to over a month but faced increasing pressure from the players below him after some impressive performances – can any of them overtake him at last after another frantic week of action?
We have two players dropping out of the Top 10 this time around: Bournemouth’s Eli Junior Kroupi failed to find the net for one too many games, while Alejandro Garnacho falls away after failing to sustain his impress burst of form for Chelsea from before the recent international break. That leaves space for two brand new entries, both from the same team…
10. Jamie Gittens – Chelsea (⬇️3)
Gittens can count himself lucky to have survived this week – the inconsistent young winger barely made any mark at all as a substitute against Barcelona, admittedly coming on once the game was already won, and then found himself glued to the bench during the 1-1 draw against Arsenal. Frankly, he remains in our Top 10 because none of those behind him made a strong enough case for inclusion, while Gittens did play very well against Burnley the week prior. Living on borrowed time, perhaps, but it would have been harsh to kick him out.
9. Lewis Hall – Newcastle United (new entry)
When Hall first broke through, we thought he’d be a staple of these Top 10s a long time – instead, injury robbed him of most of 2025 and this is his first appearance in our rankings of the season and, indeed, since January. But he’s back to full fitness and close to his best again, judging by the absolutely superb cross with which he set up Malick Thiaw’s second goal against Everton at the weekend, the highlight of an industrious and well-rounded outing. It’s good to have him back.
8. Yankuba Minteh – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️2)
We saw a bit of the best and worst of Minteh against Nottingham Forest last weekend: On the one hand, he only succeeded with one of his six attempted dribbles, three of his 13 one-on-ones, lost possession 23 times from just 49 touches and didn’t score or provide a goal. On the other, he tried so many things and attacked Forest from so many different angles that he directly created no fewer than three shooting opportunities and could easily have wound up with an assist or two. Minteh doesn’t always succeed with everything he tries, but he never stops finding ways to get himself involved in the game.
7. Lewis Miley – Newcastle United (new entry)
Miley has been knocking at the door of the Top 10 for a while, working hard without necessarily taking many games by the scruff of the neck – but that was precisely what he did during Newcastle’s 4-1 win over Everton, smashing a left-footed strike under the arms of Jordan Pickford to score his side’s second goal not long after his excellent corner onto Thiaw’s head had created their first in the very first minute of the game. Also impressive off the bench against Marseille last week, Miley is growing in stature game by game and finally gets a deserved not in our rankings.
6. Noah Sadiki – Sunderland (⬇️2)
This was, arguably, Sadiki’s first bad game in the Premier League. Normally destructive out of possession and dynamic when he does have the ball, against Bournemouth Sadiki was beaten one-on-one more often than he made the stop – indeed, he didn’t register a single tackle – and struggled to impose himself. A rare off week for a very impressive young midfielder who will be off to the Africa Cup of Nations in a couple of weeks and thus cede his position in our Top 10 for a while, along with Minteh.
5. Nico O’Reilly – Manchester City (⬇️2)
A second consecutive up-and-down sort of week for the newly-minted England international saw him come on as a second-half substitute against Bayer Leverkusen and demonstrate some of his old weaknesses against quick ball carriers, and then have a strange sort of day against Leeds in which he could have scored twice from corners.
One of his close-range efforts at least fell kindly for Joško Gvardiol to score City’s second, but O’Reilly probably should have been on the scoresheet himself and was arguably out of position in the build-up to the penalty which was scored on the rebound by Lukas Nmecha. Ultimately, O’Reilly came out on the winning side and was effective going forward, but had some bad moments at the back and over the course of the two games won just three of his 13 ground duels. A mixed bag.
4. Adam Wharton – Crystal Palace (⬆️1)
If you only watched the highlights this week, you would likely conclude that Wharton didn’t have the best time of it, thanks in no small part to a terrible miss in the Europa Conference League defeat to RC Strasbourg which saw him hit the woodwork when a defensive error handed him an open goal.
He was typically excellent at the unsexy stuff which doesn’t make the headlines, however, racking up a total of 12 turnovers between the games against Strasbourg and Manchester United, and he was especially dominant in the middle of the park against the latter both on and off the ball. The big moments weren’t there, but the graft was and he won’t exactly have dissuaded United from trying to sign him next summer.
3. Estêvão Willian – Chelsea (⬆️5)
Had Estêvão followed up his breathtaking performance against Barcelona with an equally impactful game against Arsenal, he might have surged all the way up to number one – but as it was, he’ll have to settle for the top three after outshining Lamine Yamal at Stamford Bridge.
His magnificent goal in that Champions League match – a rather Yamalesque dribble between two defenders before he drilled into the roof of the net from an acute angle – will be remembered for some time but he was superb throughout that game, and even against Arsenal it’s worth noting that of the 17 touches he had time for before he was taken off, four directly resulted in attempts on goal. It’s not as though he wasn’t causing any trouble…
2. Mateus Fernandes – West Ham United (-)
Fernandes has been a model of consistency and efficiency lately, which is no surprise to anyone who watched him when he was the one good thing about Southampton’s dire 2024/25 season. West Ham have needed a midfielder who really runs things in the centre of the park for a while. Now they have one.
Against Liverpool, Fernandes was once again probably their best player, creating three shooting chances, making every tackle he attempted, forcing three turnovers and making a nuisance of himself at every turn. The only criticism we can level at him was that he struggled when taking an opposing midfielder on with the ball at his feet and did give away a couple of fouls. Still, this was another fine performance. But not quite good enough for number one…
1. Michael Kayode – Brentford (-)
For once, Kayode gave us one very good reason to demote him – the penalty he gave away against Burnley may not have been costly but was certainly clumsy, with Kayode’s poor touch letting Jadon Anthony in before the Italian full-back hacked him down in unwise and ungainly fashion. We came very close to giving Fernandes the number one spot as a result.
But it’s hard to ignore the fact that Kayode was otherwise superb. Three turnovers, three interceptions, four clearances and two tackles at the back for a highly impressive stat sheet, constantly involved going forward, and at least one very good cross which could have resulted in a goal quite easily. Kayode was at the heart of just about everything Brentford did well, and it would be deeply unfair to penalise him too harshly for one (admittedly bad) mistake. Kayode’s reign continues…
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