Villa head into Carling Cup battle against Burnley with Gerard Houllier unfazed by their recent goal drought.

The claret and blues have failed to score in their last two games ahead of tonight, against Chelsea and Sunderland, and are now three matches without a win, having lost at Tottenham prior to those fixtures.

They will kick-off this evening’s last-16 encounter with the Championship outfit at Villa Park overwhelming favourites to progress and Houllier is adamant their recent goal shortage, which comes after five strikes in his first two matches, is not a concern.

He said: “We’re creating chances, which is the most important thing. It’s not as if we have had a dry game. We’re aware we need to score but it will come.

“I feel we’re probably missing a few points on what we should have. If you look at the performances we’ve had like Tottenham, even when Kevin MacDonald was in charge against Stoke, sometimes it goes against you.

“The last free kick against Stoke was not a free-kick. I saw the game on TV. It was a bit of a dive and then that led to the winner for them.

“I was not very happy with what happened at Tottenham and in the Sunderland game we had a penalty claim and the referee decided otherwise. Apart from that we had other chances too.

“If we could have put the ball in the goal we could have put the game away far before the end of the game.

“The first half I was not happy. The second half we started passing the ball and going forward quickly. We want to go forward with a very solid style which is nice to watch as well.

“We know that sometimes we’ll lose games but if we keep at it – and I’ve only been here a month – we’ll improve and confidence will grow and we’ll score goals.

“Some teams have been playing for years before they get there. But we’ll do it.

“That is our philosophy.”

Houllier reckons his team have been partaking in target practice, but is eager not to put too much emphasis on its importance and thus pile more pressure on his players.

He added: “From the psychological point of view we don’t want to stress that too much.

“There’s nothing worse than when a striker is in a crisis of confidence you spend hours in front of the goal and it gets worse and worse.

“I’m totally relaxed about it through my experience. As a young manager I used to worry about that, but I know it doesn’t help. It is not the right way.

“Because if he misses again you think ‘oh, my God!”

Steve Sidwell will definitely start in place of the injured Stiliyan Petrov, who misses out along with Luke Young and Gabby Agbonlahor.

Houllier has confirmed he will make “a few changes” with Brad Guzan, Carlos Cuellar, Marc Albrighton and John Carew among those in contention to be drafted into the starting line-up.

He said: “There will be a few changes. Everybody contributes to success. You can’t say that this is the starting line-up that will keep.

“Even in Manchester, they change the team sometimes.”

Villa, beaten finalists in the competition at the expense of Manchester United last season, might have smashed five past the Lancashire outfit on their last visit to B6 but Houllier insists they can pose problems for his team.

He added: “We have done our homework. We know about them. They are a good football team who play good football.

“Do I expect them to come at us? I hope so. But they must expect that we have a go at them as well. It will be an interesting tie. The players are aware a win will bring them to the quarter-finals.

“Every cup is important because it is important to bring silverware to the club.”