Winger Stewart Downing admits Villa need as many as five new players to regain their Premier League strength.

The 26-year-old admits his side are seriously under-strength on the eve of tomorrow’s collision with Arsenal at Villa Park.

The claret and blues will again be hoping to touch the form of their previous home display against Manchester United, but Downing acknowledges that a patchwork campaign is bringing patchwork results.

He said: “Do we need a new a striker? If you’re looking at it at the minute, then yes.

“Because we’re only playing with one striker at the minute, which is Gabby and he’s just come back from injury. It’s unfair to put a lot of pressure on young Nathan Delfouneso.

“If you look at the amount of injuries then obviously you could say we do need a striker, but we probably need four or five players.”

Villa tackle the Gunners hoping that their numbers will be strengthened by the return from injury of John Carew and the debut of Arsenal old boy Robert Pires.

And Arsene Wenger’s team have lost the services of captain Cesc Fabregas because of a hamstring injury.

Downing said:  “It will be a tough game for us. I know they’ve got players out but they’ll replace them with quality.”

“But I’m quite confident we can win the game. A lot of people wrote us off against United but look what we could have done to them – we could have been four or five up.

“It’s a tough game but I think the lads are looking forward to it. We’re coming off a defeat as well, so both sides need to win and it should be one hell of a game. I’m quite confident we can win.

“We have got that belief.”

Villa manager Gerard Houllier has yet to decide on his line-up but concedes something has to give tomorrow admitting that he is “uncomfortable” with a points return which has left the team in danger of being sucked into trouble.

Houllier said: “It’s a big game for both teams. A good team doesn’t lose twice in a row. You could say the same for us.

“We have never lost twice in a row ourselves and that is something we have to understand.

“We are uncomfortable with the number of points that we have. We probably dropped four points against Fulham and Manchester United.

“That means we’re not mature enough to keep the results – so we must do that.

“Once we have the opportunity to get a result, you need to do what is practically right.

“Avoid silly free kicks, keep possession and keep attacking, because if you sit and if you wait, you are always in danger.

“You need to be mature and stronger and do the right thing, so that you keep the result.”