The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Big week for West Ham, Newcastle & Crystal Palace youngstersplaceholder image
The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Big week for West Ham, Newcastle & Crystal Palace youngsters | Getty Images/Iconic Media
Ranking the 10 best young players in the Premier League right now - with West Ham & Newcastle starlets among those impressing this week.
Once again, it’s time for our journalists to watch the tape, comb through the stats and come up with our Top 10 of the best young players in the Premier League right now, based not on the hype or their potential but on how they’re actually performing at the very highest level.
Last week, Michael Kayode extended his run at the top of our charts to over a month, but can he survive after a week in which Brentford were beaten 2-0 twice? Or will the chasing pack finally catch up with the Italian?
None of last week’s Top 10 drop out this week, largely because none of the Under-21s currently pushing for a place in our rankings made their case well enough – but there’s still been plenty of movement. Let’s get to it…
10. Yankuba Minteh – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️2)
Minteh has now failed to score in 10 consecutive Premier League games, which is somewhat surprising, but it’s a drought which can be partially explained by sheer inconsistency. We saw him at something resembling his best last week, when he gave Aston Villa’s defence plenty of headaches during a seven-goal thriller and generated three shooting chances for his colleagues - but also saw something closer to his worst against West Ham over the weekend, when he was almost completely ineffectual and lost possession with nearly half of his touches.
9. Jamie Gittens – Chelsea (⬆️1)
The problem with ranking Chelsea wingers right now is that they’re in and out of the team on a game-by-game basis, and Gittens only got 61 minutes of pitch time over the last two matches. Still, he put it to pretty decent use, looking lively against Leeds United, beating defenders with the ball at his feet on several occasions and setting up Pedro Neto’s goal with a lovely cross to the back post which took the defence right out of the game. Quite why he was taken off and benched over the weekend, we don’t know.
8. Lewis Miley – Newcastle United (⬇️1)
Miley could well have scored for two games in a row when he passed up a couple of presentable (but by no means easy) chances in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur, but in the end he didn’t have too much impact days after his dominant outing against Everton.
Between that game and a half-hour appearance against Burnley, he only forced a total of one turnover, for instance, but at least he kept possession moving nicely and completed every single pass over the weekend. Not a bad week, per se, but a step back from the Everton game by any standards.
7. Noah Sadiki – Sunderland (⬇️1)
Another young defensive midfielder from the North East who’s ever so slightly on the slide this week. As with Miley, we can’t criticise Sadiki too harshly for his work against Liverpool or Manchester City and his work rate hasn’t dropped, but a sum total of five turnovers and zero tackles in two full matches isn’t much to write home about – and he didn’t find many ways to damage with the ball, either. The Congolese international is on a brief run of mediocrity before heading off to the Africa Cup of Nations, but has a lot of credit in the bank.
6. Estêvão Willian – Chelsea (⬇️3)
A couple of weeks ago, the Brazilian teenager was earning rave reviews for his brilliant performance against Barcelona. It must be honestly admitted that he hasn’t really followed that up. Hooked at half-time against Leeds after having precious little impact, he was barely involved against Bournemouth, earning only a brief second-half cameo. A bad week has followed a banner performance in the Champions League.
5. Nico O’Reilly – Manchester City (-)
We had a tough time deciding what to do with O’Reilly this week. Over the course of the last week we’ve seen him play quite superbly against Sunderland and endure something resembling a waking nightmare in that blockbuster 5-4 win over Fulham. City’s whole defence crumbled at Craven Cottage, so it wasn’t only his fault, but the young full-back looked like he was going down with the ship.
Against Fulham his intermittent struggles in one-on-one situations really reared their heads – he came out on top in just five of 14 ground duels – and his positioning was all over the place at times. Against Sunderland a few short days later, however, he was imperious, losing just one of his nine duels, making all four of his attempted tackles, and looking as composed and dynamic on the ball as ever. The compromise for an awful day followed by a fine one was to leave him right where he was a week ago.
4. Lewis Hall – Newcastle United (⬆️5)
Another player we had a hard time placing, and the beneficiary of our determination that none of the players between him and fourth place last week deserved to move up – Hall jumping five whole places in a week is perhaps a little generous, but he was sufficiently excellent against Spurs that we’re happy to give him a bit of a bump.
The stats sheet for that Spurs game is quite something: Four tackles at a 100% success rate, six ball recoveries, four clearances, two interceptions and a blocked shot, all of which was earned while looking dangerous taking the ball forward.
Presumably because he’s only just made it back to full fitness, he was restricted to a half-hour cameo against Burnley, but was solid once again and could have scored from an angle after playing a gorgeous back-heeled one-two with Bruno Guimarães to work his way in behind the defence. An impressive week, all told.
3. Michael Kayode – Brentford (⬇️2)
The Italian full-back’s long reign at the top of our rankings has finally drawn to a close, after two 2-0 defeats in which Kayode defended typically well and gave very little away, but also failed to impact the final third or look much like the player we’ve spent five weeks calling the best youngster in the Premier League.
At the back, the stats sheet was good – nine turnovers and nine successful tackles over two matches is impressive by any sensible standards – but there were no significant attacking contributions, no completed crosses (a surprise given how accurate he usually is) and no chances of any kind created. Kayode has been an undeniable difference-maker for Brentford week after week, but couldn’t find a way to make his presence felt this time around.
2. Adam Wharton – Crystal Palace (⬆️2)
Kayode, of course, took over top spot from Wharton when the midfielder got injured back in October, and the former Blackburn Rovers man came pretty close to taking his throne back this week after impressive outings against both Burnley and Fulham.
Wharton was especially good off the ball, hassling and harrying opposing midfielders and forcing a massive 14 turnovers, but his passing and use of the ball wasn’t bad either and he created both of Palace’s goals against Fulham – the first with a sharp pass into the feet of Eddie Nketiah, the second with a corner headed home by Marc Guéhi. A superb week, and one which would ordinarily have been worthy of first place in our rankings.
1. Mateus Fernandes – West Ham United (⬆️1)
The only reason Wharton doesn’t return to number one is because it’s finally time to give Fernandes, a staple of these lists for a year or so without ever being number one, to get his flowers – a reward both for remarkable consistency on a pretty poor West Ham team, and for an outstanding performance against Brighton over the weekend.
The Portuguese midfielder was absolutely everywhere at the Amex Stadium, racking up defensive contributions (five tackles, four interceptions, six turnovers and two blocked shots is far more than the average centre-back manages on any given day), winning an incredible 16 of 17 ground duels, drawing five fouls and sparking several promising attacks when he won the ball back.
He wasn’t bad against Manchester United, either (when he forced eight turnovers in one game) and it’s now some time since he put in a performance that was anything close to being below average. A brilliant player proving, once again, that he can thrive in the Premier League even when the team around him is struggling.
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