Tottenham star Dele Alli is hunting Chelsea’s Eden Hazard for the right to be considered the Premier League’s best player, according to Blues great Frank Lampard.
Alli, 20, scored his 16th Premier League goal of the season in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Watford, taking his tally to five in his last six.
With his 21st birthday in sight Alli’s record in the top flight already compares favourably to many of England’s greatest midfielders of recent years. The former MK Dons midfielder has assisted or scored 40 goals in the Premier League, as many as the combined totals of Lampard, Steven Gerrard and David Beckham at the same age.
And Lampard believes Alli is already meriting a spot in the debate over the Premier League’s best performers.
“Dele Alli is a special player,” Lampard told Sky Sports. “He's better than me when I was 20, that's for sure! He is like a second striker at the moment, but that makes sense with the way they play.
“He scores goals like he did against Watford, but he's also in the six-yard box scoring. Too many attacking midfield players get to the penalty spot and stop, don't go that extra mile.
In Pictures | Tottenham vs Watford | 08/04/17
“We talk about Hazard being the best player in the league, I don't think Dele Alli is that far away from him.”
As well as holding Chelsea’s all-time goalscoring record (211) Lampard is the highest scoring midfielder in Premier League history with 177 strikes to his name, a return that places him fourth on the list of the competition’s top scorers.
Though Alli still needs over 150 goals to claim that record for himself Lampard believes that the Spurs youngster could eventually overhaul him.
“Could he score more than me? He could do. Of all the midfield players I've seen who scores goals, he's the one who is the best at it.”
