Premier League midfielders – 2022/23 power rankings

Many of the usual suspects have continued to impress in the middle of the park this season, but there have been some surprise stars too.

Here’s who we think are the 10 best-performing midfielders in the Premier League 2022/23 campaign at the moment.

Aleksandar Mitrovic may be hogging the spotlight, but Joao Palhinha has played just as big a part in Fulham’s flying start to the season.

He has quickly established himself as a key player at the heart of the midfield, being excellent at both ends of the pitch. £20m is already looking like a bargain.

A lot of big clubs were interested in Ruben Neves before the start of the season, and that queue is only going to be longer now given his start to the season.

He’s remained as good as ever on the ball, making some obscenely good passes, and has looked a lot better defensively, even doing a good job at centre-back.

Leicester have made a poor start to the season, but James Maddison hasn’t.

He was doing well before the game against Nottingham Forest, getting three goals and an assist in six matches, but he took things to another level in their most recent game, scoring two of his side’s four goals and creating another.

Get him on the plane, Gareth.

Tottenham have made a strong start to the season and that’s down to Hojbjerg as much as anyone.

He’s been key going forward and defensively, getting two goals and protecting his backline excellently. Well, except against Arsenal.

He struggled at the Emirates and drops down our rankings as a result.

Manchester City fans may have feared that, after not getting the move to Barcelona that he wanted, Bernardo Silva’s level would drop, but there hasn’t been a hint of that happening.

With two goals and four assists in six starts, he’s as good as ever.

Three of his four goals may have been from the penalty spot, but that takes nothing away from Alexis Mac Allister’s start to the season.

In a hugely impressive Brighton side, he has stood out as one of their best players and looks set to be in Argentina’s World Cup squad as a result.

After a decent 2021/22 campaign, Martin Odegaard has, like his team, taken things up a notch this season.

The highlight was his double against Bournemouth, but he’s been hugely impressive in almost every match.

Few would have expected that, at 31, Pascal Gross would look better than ever by quite some way this season, but he has.

He’s been on fire in the final third, getting three goals and two assists, and is quickly establishing himself as one of the best in the league.

Few players have had as many critics as Granit Xhaka in recent times, and few have silenced them quite as emphatically.

Being given more attacking freedom, he has been a revelation, getting three assists and two goals, with his commanding performance in the North London derby being one of his best in an Arsenal shirt.

Right now, he’s one of the best midfielders around.

There’s not much to say about De Bruyne that hasn’t already been said. He’s just really, really, ridiculously good.

With eight assists to his name already, including two in a Manchester derby in which he looked unstoppable, he’s on track to break a fair few records in that department.