EPL 2016/17: Alexis Sanchez is as good as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

Alexis Sanchez celebrates his hat-trick against West Ham

Former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink hailed Arsenal’s talisman Alexis Sanchez as a world class player. The 27-year-old stole the show at the London stadium last weekend as his scintillating hat-trick helped Arsenal to dismantle West Ham United and the Chilean’s impressive display took his goal tally to 11 for the season.

Hasselbaink, who played for four Premier League clubs during his career, believes that Sanchez’s name deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. “This boy is so confident, he can shoot from every angle,” the former Netherlands international said on Sky Sports.

“He creates, he's got a lot of assists. He's one of the best. For me, he is in that bracket of Ronaldo, Messi, Benzema, Costa. Sanchez is different to Diego Costa. He's between the lines, between centre-halves. He doesn't really want the physical aspect, he wants to twist and turn. He is a different No.9, a different kind of player but he can also play on the wing. I think the combination of him and Giroud works at times as well."

The Chilean’s impressive form so far this season has kept Olivier Giroud out of the Arsenal starting line-up as the 27-year-old has shown he is more than capable of leading the line on his own. Sanchez’s 14-minute hat-trick against West Ham was his second for The Gunners having taken the match ball home after Arsenal's 5-2 win against Leicester City in September 2015. The former Udinese and Barcelona man is the only player ever to have scored a hat-trick in the Serie A, the La Liga and the Premier League.

Despite being impressed with Sanchez’s stunning form, Hasselbaink reckons Chelsea striker Diego Costa is the best striker in the league. “For me, at the moment Costa is doing everything a striker needs to be doing,” he said. “He bullies the defenders, he brings other people into play, he scores, he presses.”

Hasselbaink also believes that Costa is superior to Manchester City’s star striker Sergio Aguero. “He [Costa] is much more ahead," opined Hasselbaink. "He is scoring more, he is participating more in the game. It's confidence, he knows what he is doing. When it is one v one, [there is] no goalkeeper he is afraid of.”

With the Premier League witnessing one of the best title races since it’s inception, the goal scoring form of Sanchez, Costa and Aguero would certainly play a part in shaping their respective side’s credentials to lift the trophy in May.

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