No sooner had we hailed Tim Cahill the equal of any attacking midfielder in England, Frank Lampard included, than the Chelsea man bags four in the 7-1 rout of Aston Villa at the weekend.

The haul, including two from the spot, took his Premier League tally this season to 17 and 21 in all competitions as the Londoners emphatically announced their title charge was back on track after many had doubted their resolve following the Champions League exit and some so-so League form.

Lampard's second four-goal performance enabled him to reach another couple of milestones in a 15-year career littered with individual and team honours.

He scored his 100th goal for Chelsea in the Premier League and his 150th for the Blues in total, making him the third highest scorer in the club's history. Only Kerry Dixon (193) and Bobby Tambling (202) lie in front of him.

And yet still he divides opinion. Witness the reader comments at the end of BBC football correspondent Phil McNulty's report in praise of him after the Villa match.

His fans point to his passing, goal assists and defensive grunt as well as his scoring record; his detractors describe him as limited with a mere happy knack for scoring, a top club player who cannot be considered among the very best until he wins the Champions League and turns it on for England.

Yet even on the question of his eligibility for "world-class" status, his critics would appear harsh in their judgements.

He has now scored 20-plus goals for the fifth season in a row in arguably the world's most competitive league.

He is the highest goalscoring midfielder in Premier League history and ranks third in the Premier League for assists (on Saturday, as well as scoring four, he laid on Chelsea's fifth for Florent Malouda to complete a double). On the back of these feats he was named the Premier League's player of the decade last December .

Even the international barbs do not quite tally.

Lampard has been capped 77 times by England since making his debut in October 1999, and has scored 20 goals; not a great goals-to-games ratio but certainly nothing to be ashamed of. He is after all a midfielder and some international strikers have only marginally better or even worse returns.

He was voted England player of the year in 2004 and 2005 and named in the team of the tournament at Euro 2004 after scoring three goals in four games.

In England's qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup, he was England's top scorer, though going goalless at the finals in Germany as England went out in the quarters and the team's failure under Steve McLaren to qualify for Euro 2008 are perhaps at the root of his being perceived as a "good player, not a great player". That and Chelsea's inability to claim the coveted Champions League trophy, despite going close on several occasions.

However, he appears to have rediscovered his international touch, scoring four goals as Fabio Capello's team qualified for this year's World Cup finals in South Africa starting in June.

Lampard will turn 32 at the start of the tournament and is in prime shape and form to finally win over his detractors. He will never have a better stage to finally stamp himself as a player of world-class ability.

Before then, however, there is the small matter of a trip to Old Trafford next Saturday where he might further enhance his reputation.

If Chelsea was magnificent in putting seven past Martin O'Neill's team, Manchester United could not have responded much better in the later kick-off than by notching four unanswered goals away from home without Wayne Rooney in the side.

This weekend's game looms as an epic showdown, though possibly not as the title decider. The way the season has unfolded, it will not surprise if there are more twists and turns in the final five matches after Saturday's clash.