Dempsey took his tally to 16 for the season in the Premier League, and 22 in all competitions, by cancelling out Frank Lampard's first-half penalty in Monday night's London derby.

The USA international has just one more year remaining on his contract and recently confirmed he will wait until the summer before making a decision on his future.

Fulham boss Jol underlined Dempsey's importance to the club following his performance against Chelsea and is not worrying about losing the 29-year-old.

Important

"I think he's a very important player over the last couple of years and is very productive," Jol told Sky Sports.

"You can play him on the left and he will score goals, you can play him up front, although it is not his favourite position, but on Saturday he held the ball up well and today again, and if you get the delivery he's one of the best I know."

Regarding the prospects of keeping Dempsey at Craven Cottage, Jol said: "Hopefully we will because he's still here for next season as well, so we won't sell him, so that is easy."

Worried

The Cottagers fell behind when Stephen Kelly, rather than Danny Murphy, was adjudged to have brought down Salomon Kalou, but Jol felt there was little in the incident.

He said: "I thought it was Danny Murphy, but later we saw that it was probably Kelly. I think he tripped himself to be honest."

Fulham had drawn the reverse fixture 1-1 on Boxing Day and also drew 0-0 at Stamford Bridge in the Carling Cup before being knocked out on penalties.

Jol said: "I think considering the situation before the game we were worried a bit because they made a lot of changes and we could only make two changes with Danny Murphy and Frei.

"After seeing the game I was really satisfied with our fitness, especially in the first half we played ever so well.

"We did it away from home twice against them, with two draws and we could have beaten them."