BOLTON, England (AFP) - Rafa Benitez believes Liverpool can gain a crucial advantage in the battle for fourth place with victory against West Ham at Anfield on Wednesday.

Benitez's side kept up the pressure on Everton, who currently occupy the final Champions League spot, with a comfortable 3-1 win over Bolton on Sunday thanks to a Jussi Jaaskelainen own goal and second half strikes from Ryan Babel and Fabio Aurelio.

And, with a game in hand, they will leap-frog their Merseyside neighbours if they can gain revenge for the 1-0 defeat they suffered when they faced West Ham at the end of January.

"Every win is important but especially now when we are so close and fighting for the fourth position, it's important to put the other teams under pressure and with the game in hand we have it depends on us," Benitez said. "You don't have to look at the table everyday to know what the situation is.

"If we can beat West Ham then we will go into the remaining games with confidence. We want to play in the Champions League and it was really important to continue winning and put in a good performance to give us more confidence."

The 3-1 win at Bolton came at the end of another week when Benitez's position has been questioned, although the manager claimed before the game he expected to remain at the club beyond the length of his current contract that runs out in 2010.

And after his side's latest win he confirmed he would be happy to stay. "I am really happy in Liverpool," he said.

"At this moment I am just thinking about these games and nothing else. I think some people have been talking but I think at this moment it is better to talk about games. If we need to talk about the future I will be really pleased because I don't have any problems."

Benitez praised the contribution of Babel at Bolton after the Dutch winger capped one of his best displays since joining the club from Ajax for 11.5 million pounds.

"He had plenty of space and could run in behind the defenders and look for one versus one situations so it was a good game for him," Benitez said.

"And also because the team is string in other areas and they had to keep an eye on Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and the others and so he had a little more freedom.

"The team was really concentrating and has been training well. We had a lot of confidence so after the first five minutes when we had problems with free kicks, the team started to play well, kept the ball and started passing the ball. It was the plan to keep a high tempo."

Bolton manager Gary Megson revealed after the defeat that skipper Kevin Nolan is a major doubt for Thursday's UEFA Cup first leg tie with Sporting Lisbon.

Nolan was forced to withdraw at half-time with a back complaint and Megson said: "It was touch and go whether Kevin would start today but he wanted to play so badly we decided to give him a go.

"He is a really important player for us. We never play as well when he is not in the side and you saw that in the second half. Now we will have to wait and see whether he is fit for Thursday but it is a game Kevin is desperate to play in."

Megson was also forced to contend with the first half loss of Icelandic full-back Gretar Steinsson to a thigh strain, although the defender is ineligible for the clash with Sporting.

The defeat to Liverpool left Bolton fourth from bottom with only goal difference keeping them out of the relegation zone and Megson admitted his side now faced a major battle to survive.

"When I came here we needed to claim more than a point a game to make up for the start we had and we have not kept to that," he said.

"We need to score more goals but we have never been a free-scoring side. But we have to improve on our ratio of chances taken."