England striker Johnson has not scored since March and wasted two golden chances to end that dismal run when he missed two penalties during Everton's UEFA Cup tie against Metalist Kharkiv on Thursday night.

O'Neill hopes the former Birmingham and Crystal Palace marksman does not use that spot-kick nightmare to suddenly find his goalscoring boots again against Villa.

"His recent run without a goal could be pretty bad news for us," said O'Neill, whose side are seeking a third-straight home win.

"Johnson is a good player who causes you enough problems during the course of the game without getting on the end of things. He did that at Goodison Park against us last season about five times.

"I've known about him since his youth team days at Birmingham City when they played Leicester City and I was the manager there.

"He was outstanding back then and has done really well for himself.

"I must admit that I didn't realise he had gone so long without a goal.

"We all know that strikers thrive on goals and if they go three or four games without scoring you know that in their minds they are thinking that run could be extended.

"That is why scoring boosts their confidence and the next thing is they know that they can also score from the next opportunity three minutes after getting a goal."

O'Neill admits he would love to emulate the recent success that Everton have had and feels that they are the benchmark that sides outside of the Premier League's big four have to aim for.

He added: "They have gone in and broken the stranglehold once and got into the Champions League. It obviously gives everyone some hope.

"That is where we want to go. Our immediate aim to be where Everton have been."

But to achieve that target, Villa will have to improve on their last outing against Manchester City.

They lost 1-0 at City last weekend - failing to get anywhere near the heights they had hit in their previous game when they pulled off a shock 2-0 win against Chelsea at Villa Park.

O'Neill wants to see a repeat of that Chelsea display and he said: "It was disappointing at Manchester City after our Chelsea performance.

"The disappointment was we should still have got something out of the game and we didn't.

"I have seen the game on video again and we had as much possession as the home team.

"I could tell from their demeanour that the fans were disappointed with the result at Manchester City. Likewise they could tell I wasn't best pleased.

"We can't afford to let that happen again. We have to make sure that we keep this recent good run at Villa Park going."