CHRIS Eagles has warned Chelsea to underestimate Burnley at their peril!

The Clarets head to Stamford Bridge for next week’s Carling Cup fourth round clash as underdogs to Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Premier League leaders.

But Eagles knows from experience that sides from lower leagues can hurt even the top flight’s strongest forces after being knocked out of the competition by Championship opposition twice with previous club Manchester United.

“They're going to find it harder playing against us than they are playing against a Premiership team, because I’ve been at a Premiership team and when we’ve played lower clubs it’s a lot harder because of the work-rate,” said the 22-year-old, who suffered at the hands of West Brom in the fourth round in 2003, and Coventry in round three at Old Trafford last season. Both were 2-0 scorelines.

“You know it’s going to be a tough game because they’ve got international players in their team. You can see the talent that we’ve got, but we’re young as well, so I don’t see any problems.

“We’re the underdogs but we’re going to go there, show what we can do, get in their face and hopefully get a result.”

Chelsea manager Scolari has stressed that, unlike many other Premier League managers, he will avoid the temptation to field a weaker side next Wednesday, although Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and Ricardo Carvalho are all sidelined with long-term injuries, while Ashley Cole also missed Tuesday night’s shock 3-1 Champions League defeat to Roma with a calf injury.

Nevertheless, Eagles insists Burnley are playing well enough not to worry about the quality of the opposition and instead put the confidence from their run of just one defeat in 15 games, and competition for starting places, to good use.

“Every player’s very good here. Everyone’s confidence is flying and everyone’s fighting for a position,” he said.

“I think the gaffer’s got a rough idea of who he’s going to play or what he’s going to do because we’ve got different formations as well, we’ve got 4-4-2 and 4-5-1, we can chop and change.

“It’s not the biggest squad but the manager’s brought players in who are versatile. Grezza (Graham Alexander) can play in centre midfield and go right back. We’ve got players who can play in different positions, which is good.”