Fernando Torres scored twice in the closing minutes as Liverpool beat 10-man Chelsea 2-0 on Sunday.
The victory lifts Liverpool into second, two points behind leaders Manchester United, who have a game in hand, dpa reported.
Liverpool had had much the better of the game, but Chelsea will feel its path was turned by the controversial dismissal of Frank Lampard - on his 600th club appearance - for a foul on Xabi Alonso with half an hour to play.
The victory ends a run of four straight draws for Liverpool, and may just reinvigorate a title challenge that had seemed to be faltering.
Chelsea sink to third, level on points with fourth-placed Aston Villa.
Amid gentle but persistent snow, the first half was typically tight and short on goalmouth incident.
Of the 20 previous times Chelsea had met a Benitez-managed Liverpool, only two produced more than two goals, so the lack of excitement was perhaps only to be expected.
Petr Cech palmed away an early Alonso drive with rather more drama than was perhaps necessary, and looked occasionally shaky with a couple of other long-range efforts, but for most part this was a game bogged down in midfield.
Liverpool were already beginning to dominate when Lampard was sent off.
There is a history of bad blood between him and Alonso - he broke the Spaniard's ankle three years ago - but if there was an offence it was one of recklessness rather than malice.
As the ball bounced between the two players, Lampard stretched for it and, although he got there first, he followed through into Alonso's shin.
His foot was high, and it was presumably for that that Lampard was penalised, but the decision seemed extremely harsh given his lack of momentum.
The final quarter of the game was played almost entirely in Chelsea's half.
Alonso had a shot deflected onto the bar by Alex, and it took a brilliantly-improvised clearance from Mikel Jon Obi to keep out a goalbound Fernando Torres effort.
Cech then saved well from Yossi Benayoun, and as the Israeli forward fizzed a hooked volley just over, it seemed that Liverpool would once again be frustrated.
But in the 89th minute Torres got to a left-wing Fabio Aurelio cross at the near post and guided his heard past Cech at the near post.
Four minutes into injury-time he added a second, rolling the ball into an empty net after unselfish work from Benayoun.
Earlier in the day, the Tyne-Wear derby between Newcastle United and Sunderland finished 1-1.
Djibril Cisse, who later went off with an ankle injury, put Sunderland ahead after 32 minutes.
But a highly contentious penalty - awarded for a supposed push by Steed Malbranque on Stephen Taylor, although the offence seemed the other way round - gifted Newcastle an equaliser as Shola Ameobi thumped in the spot-kick.