Rafael Benitez will restore Frank Lampard to the starting line-up for the trip to Villa Park on Saturday afternoon and believes the midfielder will break Bobby Tambling’s all-time scoring record.
The 34-year-old looks to be coming towards the end of his time at Stamford Bridge as his contract expires at the end of the season and he has three remaining games to become the club’s highest ever goal-scorer.
Benitez confirmed that the midfielder will play against Aston Villa but said that he hasn’t decided which XI will play in the Europa League final and our final home game against Everton.
He said:
“I have confidence that he will do it. He will play at least one more game and we will wait to see what happens in the other two.
“Frank is a great professional, a very good player. I am really pleased with him because he is training very well every day and his fitness is quite good.
“He will play against Aston Villa and I cannot say anything about the final. We have to play another game and after I will decide the team for the final.
“I will do what I can to win games and, if I can help Frank at the same time, I will do it.”
Lampard didn’t feature in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham and now faces an anxious two weeks to see if he can break and set a new record, but the main this is that Chelsea’s future is secured by finishing in the top four and hopefully we’ll add a Europa League title to do that, and he can help get us there.
As well as the Aston Villa game I cannot imagine that Benitez will rob Lampard the opportunity of playing in front of the fans for what could be the last time against Everton and hopefully he’ll feature in the final against Benfica, but midfield solidarity will be the priority against the tricky Portuguese side and it depends how the game pans out.
He’s currently on 201 goals for the club and need only two to set a record…it wouldn’t hurt if the likes of Eden Hazard could earn us a few more penalties. But in true Lampard style I think he will do it on the final day of the season.
Source: West London Sport
