The England international continued his great run in front of goal with another strike in the Blues' 4-1 win over Wigan at Stamford Bridge, pulling him to within four of Chelsea's all-time leading scorer Bobby Tambling, who netted 202 times.

Benitez heaped praise midfielder, who is out of contract at the end of the season, but remained coy on the Englishman's future beyond this season.

"In the last two months he has scored eight or nine goals, that's really pleasing for me. Lampard is fit, he understands the game, if he scores 20 goals and breaks the record I will be really pleased," he told reporters.

When asked how long the midfielder can continue playing for he jokingly replied: "If he is fit for Thursday, I'll be really pleased."

Benitez said his side did well to hold on to their lead during a nervy spell at 2-1 after Shaun Maloney had pulled one back for the visitors, and was pleased to welcome back some key personnel for the match.

"The possibility to use different players was much better for us, David Luiz and Eden Hazard (returned) so we could move Ramires to the right side, which was crucial for us because they were playing three at the back," he said.

"After you could change players, play (Juan) Mata, Yossi (Benayoun) and Marko Marin and they could make the difference, before we didn't have these options in some positions. Now we can manage the game in different ways."