Ranking the 10 best young players in the Premier League right now - including brand new entries from Aston Villa and Brentford.
Each week during the domestic season, our journalists pore over the stats and watch all of the tape they can get their hands on in the hope of working out who the best young player in the Premier League is right now – based not on potential or hype, but on their actual performances at the very highest level. The result is the Wonderkid Power Rankings.
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Last week, Liverpool summer signing Jérémy Jacquet moved back to the summit of our Top 10 after Lewis Hall aged out of consideration, and now gets the chance to keep hold of the crown for three full weeks with an extended international break on the horizon – but many members of the chasing pack were seriously impressive over the past seven days.
Two youngsters impressed us sufficiently to make their first ever appearances in the Power Rankings, which naturally means that two members of our last Top 10 make way: Everton’s Tyrique George and Newcastle’s Bazoumana Touré were restricted to cameo appearances and couldn’t make a strong enough case to keep their places this time around. Let’s see who took their places, and who took top spot…
10. Harrison Armstrong – Everton (⬇️1)
Armstrong is clinging on a little bit, if we’re being honest, and hasn’t really found his best form since Everton fans forced their board to scupper his proposed sale to Nottingham Forest at the very end of the transfer window. Still, he was neat and tidy in the 1-0 win over Ipswich Town, playing some nice passes and looking very comfortable in possession while keeping it steady in defence, a couple of clumsy fouls notwithstanding. Not an especially impactful performance, but not bad by any stretch of the imagination.
9. Johan Manzambi – Aston Villa (new entry)
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The 20-year-old attacking midfielder briefly became Aston Villa’s club record signing after a string of superb performances for Switzerland at the World Cup, and seems to have maintained that momentum despite spending several few weeks on the sidelines due to injury - Manzambi made his first start against Tottenham Hotspur and scored his first goal for his new club, slotting home coolly from close range, before setting up Nicolas Jackson’s excellent second goal. There was enough creativity, threat and end product on display to give Villa fans good reason to be excited.
8. Jannik Schuster – Brentford (new entry)
Injuries have given the young Austrian centre-back any early chance to cement a place in Keith Andrews’ starting line-up, and he’s taking it rather well – and he put in perhaps his best performance yet against Chelsea. His positioning was outstanding throughout, leading to a colossal 12 clearances and three blocked shots, and he was dominant in the air at both ends, nodding a corner back across goal to create Jaidon Anthony’s opener. An excellent day out for a very exciting centre-back prospect.
7. Lewis Miley – Newcastle United (⬇️2)
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Despite playing well, Miley has been luckless of late - but while nobody could blame him for the own goal he scored against Leeds last Monday, it’s at least somewhat fair to criticise him for failing to deal with a high ball against Hull City, and it was his giving the ball away under pressure which led to the visitors’ consolation goal. He loses a couple of places for that error but otherwise the 20-year-old was typically cool in possession and dogged off the ball, racking up five turnovers, two interceptions and generally cobbling together a rock solid stats sheet.
6. Malick Yalcouyé – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️3)
Yalcouyé has banked plenty of credit with his early-season performances but did spend a fair bit of that in a fruitless display against Manchester United. Brighton may have picked up a big win on the road but the Ivorian wasn’t that much of a factor and struggled both on and off the ball, resulting in his being restricted to a quiet cameo appearance at the end of the win against Arsenal. One suspects that Jack Hinshelwood’s return could see Yalcouyé back on the bench for a bit.
5. Kobbie Mainoo – Manchester United (⬆️2)
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It was a very forgettable week for Manchester United but that wasn’t on Mainoo, who came on as a late substitute in the 3-2 defeat to Brighton (and quickly outperformed many of his colleagues) and offered a measure of control in the 1-1 draw against Fulham.
In the latter game, he was surely his side’s most effective defender and recovered possession a total of 10 times while passing the ball precisely throughout. His team’s form may be poor, but Mainoo has been excellent of late, and he’s consistently creating a rock-solid platform that his team-mates have been making precious little use of.
4. Josh King – Fulham (⬇️1)
In that same draw at Craven Cottage, there were glimpses of King’s quick feet and goal threat but he ultimately squandered the chances that came his way, forcing two sharp saves from Senne Lammens when he perhaps could have done better. And let’s just move swiftly on from the dive for which he was rightly booked.
King did at least provide some end product in the EFL Cup, setting up Oscar Bobb’s decisive goal against West Ham. Thomas Tuchel said that King wasn’t far off an England call-up, and he’s certainly finding the kind of form which makes the idea of a cap seem pretty reasonable – a little more consistency could get him over the line soon.
3. Luka Vušković – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️1)
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The Croatian centre-back didn’t do an awful lot wrong this week and hasn’t lost a place in our rankings because of any particular mistakes he made – although he actually wasn’t at his very best in the remarkable 3-0 win over Arsenal – but because one of his team-mates stole his place in the top two. Such is life, sometimes.
Vušković did commit a few too many fouls and lose a couple too many one-on-one scraps to be said to have been all that great against Arsenal, but his positional work was still very good and he was impressive against Manchester United both on and off the ball, doing his defensive work diligently while also getting credit for assisting Pascal Groß’s equaliser at OId Trafford. Vušković gets a four-star review for the past week’s work, but that wasn’t quite enough to avoid losing ground to…
2. Charalampos Kostoulas – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬆️4)
A five-star player in a five-star week for the Seagulls, Kostoulas might not even have been in the starting line-up were it not for injuries but has rapidly found red-hot form, scoring against both Manchester United and Arsenal in memorable victories and extending his own scoring streak to three in a row and four in six. The Greek teenager is really starting to find his feet at the top level.
His strike against Arsenal was especially impressive, a fine low effort from over 20 yards out which combined both power and accuracy and taught defenders not to stand off him in the future. Kostoulas also picked up the assist for the opening goal with a tidy ball into the feet of Groß and looks like a fine link-up man as well as an increasingly confident goalscorer. What a week it’s been down in Sussex.
1. Jérémy Jacquet – Liverpool (-)
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Even Kostoulas’ efforts weren’t enough to dethrone Jacquet, however, who continues to do a fine impression of the second coming of Virgil van Dijk at Anfield and was awarded the player of the match award for his outstanding work in the 1-0 win over Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon.
Decisive in defence and dynamic in possession, Jacquet has been among the top flight’s best defenders this season and has scarcely put a single foot wrong – worries about the state of Liverpool’s defence over the summer seem to have been exaggerated. He was superb in his 45 minutes against Spurs in the EFL Cup win, too. A brilliant signing, a wildly promising player, and a worthy number one yet again.