🎥 European Player Power Rankings: Grande Karim and shining Silvas | OneFootball

What a week it’s been all over Europe. Derby delights, goals galore and and performances to die for.

Here’s our pick of the top 10 players over the past seven days.

10. Stephan El Shaarawy – Roma (New entrant)

There was a time when El Shaarawy was the golden boy of Italian football – the next superstar of calcio alongside Mario Balotelli and Fabio Borini.

It’s taken a while, but now the mohicaned goalscorer is at the level everyone thought he could get to a few years ago.

The 26-year-old is on five for the season now with two of them coming in the Giallorossi’s 4-1 win over Sampdoria at the weekend. His understanding with Edin Džeko and Cengiz Ünder seems to have gone to another level this term, and that can only be a good thing for the capital club.

9. Diego Godín – Atlético Madrid (New entrant)

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to include Godín this week, if only for the story behind his late winner against Athletic Club.

2-1 down at home to the Basque outfit, the Uruguay international pulled his calf late on, but with Diego Simeone having made all three of his substitutions, the veteran centre-back instead moved up front to essentially avoid causing any more damage.

And what happened? In injury time the 31-year-old popped up to score the winner with the very last kick of the game.

8. Memphis Depay – Lyon (New entrant)

Memphis Depay may have a League Two attitude, but when he turns it on he’s one of the very best in Ligue 1.

This weekend, away at Guingamp, he turned on the style with two goals and two assists – with his free-kick in particular going down as one of the strikes of the season so far.

7. Raheem Sterling – Manchester City (Last week: 1)

He wasn’t at the same levels as he showed against Southampton and Shakhtar last week, and therefore he tumbles a few places down the rankings.

Having said that though, the England international was still one of Manchester City’s star performers in their derby rout at the weekend.

Always looking to drive forward with the ball, never giving Ashley Young a second – the 3-1 win was certainly one way to celebrate signing a new multi-million pound contract.

6. Edinson Cavani – Paris Saint-Germain (New entrant)

Back in the PSG team for their trip to Monaco at the weekend, and very much back amongst the goals.

None of them will win any Goal of the Season awards but all three were proper centre-forward strikes of the highest order. Prowling inside the area, sniffing out space and then coolly slotting past the goalkeeper.

Neymar and Kylian Mbappé may grab more of the headlines, but Cavani is equally as important to Thomas Tuchel’s forward line.

5. Cristiano Ronaldo – Juventus (Last week: 3)

Say what you like about Ronaldo, but you can’t deny he’s changed his game, almost entirely, to become one of the very best penalty box strikers in the world.

Who would have thought that would happen when he was ricking up at Old Trafford with too many stepovers and spaghetti in his hair?

Sunday at San Siro was the perfect crystallisation of what he’s become – doing the square root of nothing for 80 minutes and then pouncing on a mistake by Gianluigi Donnarumma to give Juve a valuable away win at AC Milan.

4. Marco Reus – Borussia Dortmund (New entrant)

After a season beset by injury upon injury, how heartening it is then to see Reus back to full fitness and firing Borussia Dortmund to a potential Bundesliga title.

The Germany international has already played more minutes this term than he did in the entirety of the previous campaign and was once again at the heart of everything the Schwarzgelben did well in their thrilling Klassiker victory over Bayern Munich on Saturday.

When he’s on song like this, Marco really is a Rolls Reus of a player.

3 and 2. Manchester City’s Silvas (New entrant)

They say that ‘all that glitters is not gold’, but that can’t be said for Manchester City’s sensational Silvas.

Both David and Bernardo have taken their games to an entirely new level this season, and were the key cogs in the reining Premier League champion’s demolition of United at the weekend.

Grace, poise, vision, balance – these two have it all. The only comparison we can make is with Xavi and Iniesta. And there’s no higher bar than that.

1. Karim Benzema – Real Madrid (Last week: 2)

So this is where the real Karim Benzema has been hiding?

For nine years the French striker was the perfect foil for Cristiano Ronaldo. The unselfish striker, willing to forgo goals in order to help the Portuguese sensation become the best in the world.

But with the Ballon d’Or winner gone, Benzema has finally been able to step out of his shadow and score the goals he made his name with at Lyon all those years ago.

It was two more this weekend as Santiago Solari’s side overcame a tricky away tie at Celta Vigo and secured the Argentine tactician the Madrid gig on a permanent basis.