On squad newsThe Nigerian duo of Victor Moses and John Mikel Obi will be unavailable over the coming weeks due to their involvement at the African Cup of Nations.
Elsewhere, there are no fresh injury worries, although the game comes too soon for Petr Cech and long-term absentee John Terry.
Benitez, though, believes the return of the skipper could come sooner rather than later.
'We don't have any new problems,' he said. 'The good news is that Terry has been training and we are considering playing him for the Under-21s on Thursday, we will have to see how he feels.
'Hopefully he can play some minutes in the short-term. It's a positive as before he was just doing the warm up, he's getting closer but it depends on his reactions.
'It will be a different kind of game, but if he is okay and can train the day after, at least we can start considering him as an option.' /chelseafc/
