Carling Cup 4th Round Preview: Aston Villa vs Burnley FC
Aston Villa will play their 4th round tie in the Carling Cup on Wednesday night, against the Football Championship side Burnley FC. Burnley finished 18th in the English Premier League at the end of last season,
and were consequently relegated to the Championship.
Gerard Houllier has won the League Cup twice, during his managerial days at Liverpool FC, and under their French manager, The Lions will be hoping to end their 14-year wait for a major honour.
The Villans dispatched Blackburn Rovers 3-1 earlier, while Burnley managed to beat premiership side Bolton Wanderers 1-0 in the previous round, to book their berth in the last 16.
Aston Villa will be without their captain Stiliyan Petrov, who injured himself at the weekend, in a clash against Sunderland FC. The midfielder only managed to last 39 minutes at The Stadium of Light, before sustaining a knee injury.
Villa will also have to do without their dynamic striker Gabriel Agbonlahor; the England international is out due to a groin injury and has not featured in Villa’s last three Premier League matches. The Lions will also be missing
Luke Young, who is unavailable due to a groin injury and is expected to be out of action until November. Reserve goalkeeper Brad Guzan is expected to start between the posts in place of 1st choice American keeper Bradley Friedel.
The Clarets will be looking to include Clarke Carlisle in their defensive setup, as Leon Cort was suspended after earning a red card at the weekend.
Burnley’s ambition to win the Championship suffered a serious setback, after their last league match ended in a 4-0 home defeat to Reading FC. Manager Brian Laws will be expecting from his boys to bounce back after the demoralising
defeat, and a win against The Villans will be a perfect way to boost his side’s morale.
He said, “We have got to move on and you can't ask for a better game than Aston Villa away in the cup when hopefully we can dust off that performance. Historically we have had really good cup runs and you couldn't ask for a bigger
test”. The Clarets will play their next two league matches away to Millwall FC and Sheffield United FC.
Aston Villa have lifted the League Cup 5 times while thrice ending up as runners-up. Their opposition for the night, Burnley, have only managed to reach as far as the semifinals of the competition.
On a head to head comparison, Villa have won 49, while Burnley have been victorious on 39 occasions, out of the 113 previous meetings.
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