CHELSEA MANAGER RAFAEL BENITEZ hailed Frank Lampard’s ‘fantastic achievement’ after the midfielder scored his 200th goal for the club.
The veteran midfielder reached the landmark with a first-half header in his side’s 2-0 win over West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Lampard is now just two goals behind Bobby Tambling’s all-time club record.
“I’m happy because Frank has scored 200 goals, it’s a fantastic achievement for anyone but particularly him,” Benitez told reporters. “I’m really pleased for him.
“Frank is a fantastic player and he works very hard in training. We have a lot of games to play this season, so hopefully he can score more goals.
“I don’t take credit myself but I also give credit to the rest of the team because they give balance.”
Eden Hazard scored Chelsea’s second goal as they cruised to victory and moved up to third place in the English Premier League following Tottenham’s defeat to Fulham.
Benitez believes Chelsea are gathering momentum at the right time – they are also in the last eight of the FA Cup and Europa League – and has not ruled out challenging for second place after they moved to within four points of Manchester City.
“If we continue winning, you can be closer to second,” he said. “We have a busy schedule now and then we will see where we are in the table.
“Today we continued the momentum of playing attacking football and creating chances. We should have scored more goals.
“For me, if the team is playing well the fans will enjoy it.
“The main target for us is to stick together as a team and hopefully the fans will enjoy the results. I’m really pleased with the atmosphere and I’m really pleased with the team.”
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce said facing a side with the likes of Hazard, Lampard and Juan Mata was too much for his team.
“Sometimes, you come to places like this and you have to hope the top players are not on song but today young Eden Hazard made life extremely difficult for us,” he said.
“The quality of the players in that area, including Juan Mata, with the support of Frank Lampard, was too much for us on the day.”
