Messi knocked off top spot in player form rankings while England youngster climbs

It doesn’t happen often, but Lionel Messi has surrendered top spot in the player form rankings across Europe’s top five leagues this week.

The 31-year-old scored for a seventh league game running in victory at Girona with a trademarked chipped finish but he is leapfrogged by Kylian Mbappe.

The 20-year-old scored one and set up another in a 4-1 win over Rennes, netting for the fourth appearance running, with six goals and two assists in that time, rising from fifth on the leaderboard, with Messi dropping to second.

Paul Pogba remains third having had no league game over the weekend, but there are new faces in fourth and fifth.

Alejandro Gomez is just off the podium and up four places having registered two assists as Atalanta came from 3-0 down to draw with Roma. The Argentine now has five assists in his last four league games and a goal in that time too.

Dani Parejo, meanwhile, completes the top five after a starring role in Valencia’s convincing win over Villarreal. The playmaker registered an assist from one of four key passes and completed 94.4 per cent of his passes, having scored in three consecutive games straddling the New Year.

PSG duo Edinson Cavani (sixth) and Julian Draxler (eighth) join Mbappe in the top ten, sandwiching Mohamed Salah, while Duvan Zapata and Luis Suarez complete the top ten but fall from second and fourth respectively. The former continued his fine scoring streak - now at eight league games - but missed a penalty in the six-goal thriller with Roma, while the latter drew a blank for the first time in four matches.

Elsewhere Borussia Dortmund’s teenager sensation Jadon Sancho is a high riser this week, jumping from 20th to 12th having registered two assists - his eighth and ninth of the season - in victory over Hannover, completing a further six dribbles to move just behind compatriot Marcus Rashford.

Fabio Quagliarella (14th) jumps onto the leaderboard having equalled Gabriel Batistuta’s 11-game scoring streak record in Serie A at the grand old age of 35, with Hoffenheim’s Kerem Demirbay (16th) and Frankfurt striker Sebastien Haller (20th) returning to the top 20 having fallen out in recent weeks.