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Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United talents impress as we count down the best young players in the Premier League right now.
Once again, 3 Added Minutes’ writers have watched the highlight reels and studied the stats to answer a tricky question – just who is the best young player in the Premier League?
Last time out, we concluded that Bournemouth’s Dean Huijsen was the most in-form Under-21 in the division, but can he hang on to his throne after the Cherries were beaten by Brentford? Or can someone else in our weekly Top 10 claim the crown?
Before we get underway, we always like to note the youngsters who are dropping out of the rankings – in this case Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri, who didn’t get much game time this week, and Manchester City’s Savinho, whose form has waned after a purple patch. We suspect both will be back before too long. Now, on with the countdown…
10. Mateus Fernandes – Southampton (⬇️4)
The Portuguese midfielder’s form has definitely dipped over the last few weeks, perhaps because he’s getting a little tired of trying to carry Southampton on his back all season – or perhaps it’s just because Ivan Jurić tried him out as a false nine this week, a position that didn’t seem to suit him. Hooked at half-time during the depressingly predictable defeat to Wolves, Fernandes wasn’t able to make his usual impact in an unfamiliar position.
9. Tyrique George – Chelsea (⬆️1)
We’re starting to feel like we might be the only media outlet that has noticed the 19-year-old winger break into the Chelsea first team and put up some impressive performances, but he was good again in the Europa League win over FC København, flashing some promise with his dribbling and movement off the ball. In the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal at the weekend he was restricted to a brief cameo deep into the second half, but it was still enough time for him to tee up a good chance for Marc Cucurella with a cross. A player we’re watching increasingly closely despite the lack of fanfare.
8. Adam Wharton – Crystal Palace (⬇️3)
Palace didn’t have a game this weekend, as their fixture against Newcastle was shelved due to the League Cup final – but Wharton avoids dropping out of the Top 10 entirely due to a long-standing Power Rankings rule which says that players in the top five don’t get binned for missing just one week’s action. To be fair, he did play a friendly in Marbella against a Norwegian side called HamKam that we had never heard of before. He probably did quite well.
7. Myles Lewis-Skelly – Arsenal (re-entry)
Nwaneri may have slipped out of our rankings this week but his team-mates Lewis-Skelly takes his place after returning from suspension to put in mature performances against both PSV and Chelsea. His defensive mettle wasn’t tested all that much in either game, in truth, but he emerged from the matches mistake-free and having been credited with winning every one-on-one faced while flashing some threat in the final third.
6. Yankuba Minteh – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️2)
Minteh can perhaps count himself lucky to drop just two places in a week in which most of our Top 10 trended downwards, especially after missing a golden chance to score what may well have been the winning goal at the Etihad when he entirely failed to make contact with the goal at his mercy at the back post. Otherwise he did a lot of good, hard work tracking back to try and tie Jérémy Doku down, even if he did get beaten on the run a whopping five times.
5. Jack Hinshelwood – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬆️2)
Hinshelwood, by comparison, can perhaps be said to be a little lucky to find himself up in the top five, largely because while his shot on the turn forced the equalising own goal in the 2-2 draw against Manchester City, he probably should have scored it himself.
Instead, Abdukodir Khusanov wound up with an own goal next to his name and Hinshelwood is credited as having missed an opportunity with a massive xG of 0.43 – but we’re feeling inclined towards generosity, especially as he created several fine chances throughout the course of the match. Had he pulled back across the box instead of shooting at the near post on one occasion, he may have ended up with an assist that he probably deserved, too.
4. Patrick Dorgu – Manchester United (RE)
The Danish wing-back was trending upwards in our rankings before a nightmare against Ipswich Town wound up with him getting sent off, but he was back to face Real Sociedad in midweek and may well have been the best player on the pitch bar hat-trick hero Bruno Fernandes, so we’ve decided to be generous and install him all the way up in the top five in a week when few other players earned such a lofty ranking.
The Dane got into a ton of promising positions going forward, getting five shots away by the end of the game, was excellent in his ground duels and did plenty of strong work in the defensive third to cap a fine all-round performance. Mention should also really be made of young Ayden Heaven, who was superb against Leicester City before being carted off with an injury – if we knew for sure he’d be playing next week, he’d have made the Top 10, but we don’t usually include injured players.
3. Lucas Bergvall – Tottenham Hotspur (-)
On the one hand, Bergvall made the only mistake of the week which rivalled Minteh’s miss in Manchester – it was his uncharacteristically lax and lazy pass at the back which allowed Peer Koopmeiners in to score for AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League. Normally, that would send his ranking tumbling, but he was immaculate in every other regard in that game.
Bergvall won every one-on-one, completed every attempted dribble, near enough every pass and made five interceptions as he persistently broke up AZ attacks. In other words, it was a superb performance which incorporated one massive clanger. Against Fulham at the weekend, he was merely average on and off the ball, neither especially at fault for the loss nor particularly inspired. In other weeks, he might have dropped down the rankings, but nobody else really earned a top three berth this week.
2. Dean Huijsen – Bournemouth (⬇️1)
The Spaniard has been the dominant force in the Power Rankings since the turn of the year, but falls into second place despite a solid enough outing against Brentford, one in which he did plenty of good defensive work and offered some unexpected penetration in the final third… but perhaps also showed off his inexperience a little.
He was undeniably drawn needlessly towards the ball from the long throw which led to Christian Nørgaard’s winner, and could he have been better positioned from the corner from which Yoane Wissa equalised? Probably. He may well have done more to avoid getting turned inside the box by Kevin Schade, too, although the forward’s finish went wide. Blaming Huijsen for the defeat would be harsh, but just this one time he maybe could have done more.
1. Milos Kerkez – Bournemouth (⬆️1)
All of which allows his team-mate Kerkez to sneak in and steal number one from under his nose. Bournemouth may have been beaten by the Bees, but the Hungarian emerged from the encounter with flying colours.
It was his fizzing cross which Vitaly Janelt diverted into his own net for the opening goal, the result of one of several promising rampages into the Brentford box, and his defensive work was superb – aside from giving up one foul, he made every tackle and wasn’t beaten for pace or skill once. A fine game from a player who is starting to hit top form once again, just as the buzz about a big summer transfer starts to build once more.
Related topics:Patrick DorguChelseaArsenalCrystal Palace
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