Premier League Talent Scout: Phil Jones and the Hottest Prospects of Matchday 5

By now, I'm assuming I don't have to give you the opening shpeel about the awesomeness that is Premier League Talent Scout. If you haven't caught on yet, and can't tell from the name, you can find all the details on Premier League Talent Scout in the introductory slide of last week's edition of PLTS.

Manchester United's red-hot form means that a couple of their youngsters will continue to feature in this week's top five, while wins from Everton and Swansea may just have given us the opportunity to take a closer look at some of the diamonds-in-the-rough at each club.

Elsewhere, Blackburn's epic matchup with Arsenal showcased an impressive six U-23 players combined in both teams' starting lineups, while Tottenham 4-0 humiliation of Liverpool allowed us the opportunity to look at one of the newer Spurs that Harry Redknapp has already put a lot of trust in early in the season.

Let's get to it.

Honorable Mentions

Barry Bannan (21)—Aston Villa, Central Midfielder

He may not have been able to help his team to a victory, as Aston Villa drew for the fourth time in five EPL matches, but Bannan put in an impressive shift in his first start under manager Alex McLeish.

The young Scottish international assisted Aston Villa's only goal of the game, and passed the ball excellently in midfield. He also took a very impressive shot from 30 years out on his left foot that only barely missed the goal.

With Aston Villa's wealth of midfielders, Bannan will have to make sure the quality of his performances remains high if he hopes to compete with likes of Jermaine Jenas, Stephen Ireland and Fabian Delph for playing time.

Apostolos Vellios (19)—Everton, Striker (pictured above)

It's unlikely that anyone outside of Everton knew who Vellios was before this game. Heck, its unlikely that most Everton fans knew who Vellios was before this game. Surely, after Vellios' game-winning goal vs. Wigan, that is all set to change.

On a team that is still struggling to find a regular goalscorer and is coming off one of the poorest transfer campaigns of any club in the EPL, Vellios' chances of featuring regularly in the league look high, especially after scoring vs. Wigan.

If he can continue scoring, Vellios could quickly find himself starting up front for Everton, and maybe even breaking into the Greek national team. The sky is the limit for the young Greek.

Joe Allen

Joe Allen is a guy I've been looking at for some time now. Unfortunately, his team's rough start to life in the Premier League has made it hard for me to include him in Premier League Talent Scout's top five, but after Swansea City's 3-0 win over West Brom, I can finally include him in the top five.

Joe Allen is a Swansea City player through-and-through. Though he went on loan to Wrexham in 2008-09, Joe Allen has been playing with Swansea City since he was nine years old.

Since the start of the 2010-11 season, Joe Allen has established himself as a regular in Swansea City's midfield, making a total of 48 appearances for the club last season. He has earned eight caps with the Wales national team in the process, despite being only 20 for the majority of last season.

Against West Brom, it was Joe Allen who earned the penalty which Scott Sinclair would convert to put Swansea up 1-nil and in the driver's seat. If Swansea are to avoid relegation and remain in the Premier League, they will need Joe Allen to be at his best in midfield on a regular basis.

Kyle Walker

Finally, I have the opportunity to include a Tottenham kid in Premier League Talent Scout's top five. Introducing: 21-year-old Kyle Walker.

Most English Premier League followers shouldn't need an introduction to who Kyle Walker is. The young Englishman was ever-present in Aston Villa's defense last year in the second half of the season, and even chipped in with a couple of goals.

Since returning to Tottenham, Kyle Walker has been reliable at right back, displacing Vedran Corluka and essentially swapping places with Alan Hutton, who has since moved onto Aston Villa.

Against Liverpool, Kyle Walker put in his best game yet. Defensively, Jose Enrique and Stewart Downing were well-neutralized by the young Englishman, and Walker did well helping defend Andy Carroll whenever he needed to as well.

Offensively, Walker's game was a bit of a mixed bag. Walker showed great pace down the right, and often got himself involved in the team's offense, but his decision-making was not always great and at times he didn't look like he knew what to do when he got the ball on the attack. 

As Walker adjusts and becomes more accustomed to playing with Niko Kranjcar and Aaron Lennon, so will his understanding of his role in the team, particular on offense, but his overall game against Liverpool easily earns him a place among the PLTS top five this week.

Chris Smalling

It seems I can't keep Chris Smalling out of the PLTS top five for longer than a week. The Manchester United right back was selected in the PLTS top five for Matchday 1 and Matchday 3, and is now back for Matchday 5.

Speaking of Chris Smalling, here's a very interesting article on Chris Smalling's early career at non-League Maidstone United, and his growth from a non-league player to an England international footballer. I would strongly recommend checking it out.

Against Chelsea, Chris Smalling continued his meteoric rise in European football by opening the scoring with a header off a free kick. There was more than a suspicion of offsides, but Smalling still did very well to rise and head the ball before anyone could deal with it.

For the rest of the game, Chris Smalling was more pegged back in defense than usual, but still did a great job dealing with whatever Chelsea threw at him. He was withdrawn in the 62nd minute due to injury.

Manchester United fans and Sir Alex Ferguson will both be hoping for a speedy return from injury, who's remarkable play has made him one of the most impressive defenders of the early 2011-12 world football season.

Phil Jones

Arguably, the only U-21 defender who is more impressive than Chris Smalling right now is Phil Jones. The 19-year old has made every edition of PLTS, and doesn't look like he plans on dropping out of the top five anytime soon. Maybe I should switch PLTS from a list of the "top five young players of the week" to a list of "Phil Jones and four other young guys."

There's not much more that I can say about Phil Jones that I haven't said in the past four editions of PLTS, so I won't try to cover him with praise. I know he's amazing, you know he's amazing, so we can get past all the fluffy stuff and jump right into the details.

Against Chelsea, Phil Jones formed a solid partnership with Jonny Evans. While Phil Jones worked to anticipate Chelsea's passes and put in tackles to break up play, Jonny Evans generally mopped up the few balls that got past Phil Jones. Phil Jones and Jonny Evans did not necessarily form an impenetrable wall against Chelsea, as the Londoners actually had a decent number of chances on goal, but they got the job done.

On offense, Phil Jones once again showcased how effective he can be with the ball at his feet. In a great display of teamwork, Phil Jones was at the center of a number of passes with his teammates that took him from deep in his own half of the field to Chelsea's box, and after some poor defense from Chelsea, the ball bounced to Wayne Rooney, who coolly put the ball into the back of the net to kill off the game before halftime.

Already, Phil Jones has writers thinking that he is good enough to replace Rio Ferdinand for club and country, even when the England international returns to full fitness. 

While I believe that that is a case of jumping the gun, there is no doubt that Phil Jones is the real deal, and can easily become the next Manchester United legend at the rate he is developing.

Junior Hoilett

It will probably come as a shock to many readers that I've selected David "Junior" Hoilett as the brightest talent from Matchday 5. But hear me out before you start pouring in the hate comments.

Last week, in the closing slide of PLTS, I mentioned how Hoilett had suffered a concussion in a nasty clash with Mark Schwarzer, but was expected to be fit for the match against Arsenal. Nevertheless, there was an expectation that he would not be as sharp as usual, and the new-look Arsenal would roll over him and the rest of Blackburn.

Instead, the exact opposite happened. Wearing bandages to cover the wounds he picked up from last week's collision, Hoilett hardly stopped running on the right flank all game long, and it was his through-ball that allowed Yakubu to equalize for Blackburn and instill confidence in his team.

Later on in the game, Hoilett would again be involved in a Blackburn goal, as it was his corner which N'Zonzi received and crossed across goal to allow Yakubu to score his second goal of the game.

For his heroic and arguably match-winning performance, Junior Hoilett is the brightest talent of Matchday 5, ahead of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling.

Thoughts?

What do you think of this week's selections? Are there any players you think should've made the top-five cut that didn't? How about the players on the list, do you believe any of them should've been excluded?

I thought it was very interesting that a week after the criteria of inclusion was changed from U-21 to U-23 (with a maximum of five years of professional football experience), the top five, and even the honorable mentions, were all U-21 players. Guess there aren't very many Javier Hernandez or Daniel Sturridge-type players out there.

Make your opinion known in the comment box below. I look forward to reading your comments and discussing them with you.

(Pictured are Gael Kakuta and Marc Albrighton, two U-21 stars who are due for breakout performances after this promising 2010-11 campaigns. Keep your eye out for them, as they may be coming to a PLTS article very, very soon.)