Joey Barton has suggested that Alexis Sanchez did not prove he is an elite player on Tuesday night.

Burnley's Barton feels that the Chilean forward failed to impress in Arsenal's 2-0 Champions League Round of 16 first leg loss to Barcelona in which Lionel Messi scored two second-half goals at the Emirates Stadium.

"Alexis Sanchez, when he signed for Arsenal, I said a bit about him being slightly inconsistent," he said on talkSPORT's Drive.

"Whilst everyone was getting carried away with him, I didn't think he would be the piece in the jigsaw that took Arsenal on to be league champions – ironically this season they have a good chance of doing that.

"We saw that last night, that was a prime opportunity on the elite-level stage – go and be a match-winner, show everybody that you are an elite-level match-winner and I think he failed to do that.

"On the other side of the coin, Messi is a proven elite-level match-winner and he didn't have his most flamboyant, his most exciting game but he did what the best in the world do."