The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Newcastle & Manchester United starlets among this week's bestplaceholder image
The Wonderkid Power Rankings: Newcastle & Manchester United starlets among this week's best | Getty Images/Iconic Media Group
Counting down the 10 best young players in the Premier League right now - with Manchester United & Newcastle stars among those on the rise.
Once again, our journalists have combed through the highlights, picked apart the stats, and come up with our latest ranking of the Top 10 best young players in the Premier League right now based not just on their potential, but on their form at the very highest level.
Regular readers will have noticed that there weren’t any Power Rankings last week, a result not of a planned festive break but caused instead by our chief curator coming down with a dose of flu – but he’s now excited to be back watching some of the nation’s finest young talent, to find out whether anyone can displace our most recent winner Mateus Fernandes, and to stop writing about himself in the third person. Not necessarily in that order.
Two players fall out of the Top 10 in our first rankings of 2026, with Manchester City’s Savinho and Chelsea’s Jamie Gittens both struggling to make much of a mark over the festive period – but their departure leaves space for a young forward to return and for a brand new entry from one of the division’s biggest sides. Let’s crack on…
10. Myles Lewis-Skelly – Arsenal (⬇️1)
Since our last rankings, the left-back has only played the equivalent of one full match between his minutes against Brighton and Aston Villa, and was only just about solid enough to cling on to his place in our rankings – but he looked dynamic and defensively rigid enough to hold on by the skin of his teeth, even if he wasn’t the most impactful player on the pitch in either match. This was a toss up between Lewis-Skelly and Brighton’s Charalampos Kostoulas, with the player already in the rankings ultimately getting the benefit of the doubt for past achievements.
9. Eli Junior Kroupi – Bournemouth (re-entry)
Whenever we finally dump Kroupi out of our Top 10 after a dry spell in front of goal, he promptly scores again to force us to put him back in. It was a smashing goal, too, a clean and powerful strike from at least 20 yards against Arsenal which gave David Raya no chance. Kroupi isn’t yet a consistent threat in front of goal, but the nascent quality is there.
8. Álex Jiménez – Bournemouth (⬇️1)
Had we put together a ranking over Christmas and New Year as planned, we’d have had little choice but to knock Jiménez down a peg or two for a pretty dicey outing against Brentford – but while Bournemouth continued an alarming rate of concession against Chelsea and Arsenal, the young Spaniard was much better, and was especially excellent against Chelsea when he was tested constantly but ended up making five tackles, three interceptions and forcing seven turnovers. That puts him down and then back up our rankings.
7. Ayden Heaven – Manchester United (new entry)
Heaven has been pretty impressive when given chances in the Manchester United first team for a while now but has never strung enough good games together to make our Top 10 – until now. Heaven has started seven games in a row and was particularly good in his last three, proving to be especially impressive in one-on-one situations and letting very little past him. Whoever United’s next manager ends up being has a real talent on their hands.
6. Nico O’Reilly – Manchester City (⬇️1)
Like Jiménez, O’Reilly had one rough game over the festive period, in his case against Nottingham Forest when he was beaten on the run too many times, and his one-on-one defending remains a distinct vulnerability. He was nice and solid at the back against Chelsea and Sunderland, however, and showed his usual technical class when on the ball even if he didn’t make much of a dent in the final third recently.
5. Michael Kayode – Brentford (⬆️1)
The Italian full-back and previous number one for several weeks of the current season hasn’t been entirely consistent of late and certainly wasn’t particularly impactful against Everton during this weekend’s 4-2 win – but we also saw something resembling his best football against Bournemouth and in the 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
Against the Cherries, Kayode racked up seven recoveries of possession, five clearances, two interceptions and won six of his seven one-on-one duels, shutting Bournemouth’s dangerous wingers down and offering some useful support going forward. It was a genuine all-round performance from a wing-back with few weaknesses and who is already arguably one of the best in the league regardless of age.
4. Lewis Hall – Newcastle United (-)
It almost feels a little cruel not to move Hall up this week, because he played extremely well for Newcastle over the course of the three games to have taken place since our last rankings – but that’s the same for all of our top five this week, so Hall stays put despite impressing us a great deal.
He was perhaps at his best in the Boxing Day game against Manchester United, during which he won 11 of his 13 one-on-one battles, rattled the woodwork and let almost nothing past him at the back – and he was equally impressive going forward against Crystal Palace and Burnley, creating presentable chances in both games and stinging Dean Henderson’s palms with a fierce 15-yard shot against Palace on Sunday. A fine week for a player getting back to his best after injury.
3. Adam Wharton – Crystal Palace (⬇️1)
If it’s harsh not to reward Hall for a good week, it’s perhaps even crueller to knock Wharton down a peg, because you have to go over the last few matches with a fine toothcomb to find much that could be regarded as a mistake.
Over the course of those games, the typically tenacious Wharton racked up a sum total of 19 ball recoveries, created four shooting chances, won most of his one-on-ones in midfielder and looked as dynamic as ever whether passing the ball or surging downfield with it at his feet. Indeed, Wharton only loses ground because it’s impossible not to give another young midfielder their flowers – or to meaningfully differentiate him from this week’s number two…
2. Mateus Fernandes – West Ham United (⬇️1)
Fernandes has been astonishingly consistent lately when you consider that he’s playing for a team that just can’t buy a win, but then that’s how it was in his Southampton days as well – and we simply couldn’t drive a wedge between Wharton and Fernandes this week.
For starters, their stats were practically identical (19 recoveries, four chances created, almost identical success rate in one-on-one duels etc) and so was their impact on their team’s results, which largely consisted of being one of the best players on the pitch while their team-mates struggle for form around them. As such, we kept the pair in the same order as our last rankings, all while making room for a player who richly deserves their first number one shout…
1. Lewis Miley – Newcastle United (⬆️2)
Miley’s form has taken a massive upswing this season but it perhaps reached a peak against Crystal Palace on Sunday, when the rapidly-improving 19-year-old put in perhaps the best performance of his career so far.
Every single attempted pass found its mark, only two of his 89 touches of the ball were put down in the statistics as ‘unsucessful,’ he dealt with everything thrown at him defensively and only failed with a single ball-carrying attempts – and even picked up an assist after hooking a deep cross back across goal and into Bruno Guimarães’ path to create the opener. This was an absolutely inch-perfect performance from a player who just keeps getting better and better, and who has grown into his role in Newcastle’s midfield with immense confidence. A worthy new number one.
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