Ok so when I got out of school i re-read the sasuke vs itachi fight when itachi was talking about madara's life story. and after he got his EMS he took control over every shinobi clan so he was praised as the strongest shinobi in the world. as it says here
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but a few of the war chapters the same was said about the 1st.hokage hashirama people called him the strongest shinobi also! as here.
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so if people called them both the strongest shinobi so they should have been equal in terms of power and the manga is confusing on how they mix up things by saying that who were the strongest of that Era.