Revealed: Harvey Elliott could RETURN to Liverpool due to contract clause inserted in Aston Villa loan deal despite Unai Emery's side having £35m option

Elliott is unable to face his parent club this weekend when Villa make the trip to Liverpool owing to stipulations in the deal that saw the midfielder move to the Villans over the summer. Even so, the 22-year-old was unlikely to have played a part for Unai Emery's side having struggled for game time since his deadline day move.

Elliott has started just one league match for Villa this season, that coming in a 3-1 home win over Fulham last month, while he has registered just 97 minutes of game time for Emery's team. Even then, the youngster was hauled off at the break against the Whites, with his only other start coming in the EFL Cup penalty shootout defeat to Brentford.

Villa have an obligation to make Elliott's loan move permanent for £35m over the summer but even then that only becomes active once the midfielder plays a certain number of games. It means that Elliott can, in theory, return to Liverpool should he fail to make the requisite number of appearances.

Emery made the decision to leave Elliott out of the Villa matchday squad for their recent 1-0 win over Manchester City to add weight to the suggestion that the Spaniard isn't quite sold on the on-loan Englishman. Matty Cash scored the winning goal in the narrow victory over Pep Guardiola's side, a result that means Villa have won six of their last seven matches in all competitions.

It would take an almighty turnaround for Elliott to work his way into Emery's plans, which is a blow for the Liverpool man. Indeed, Elliott had hoped for regular minutes at Villa Park as he looks to force his way into Thomas Tuchel's England plans with the 2026 World Cup looming.

Should Villa make the move permanent, Liverpool also retain a buyback clause and a sell-on clause.

Emery has previously addressed Elliott's lack of game time, suggesting he has been far from impressed with the loan star when called upon. "I am being very, very demanding myself to choose in each match the player to start and the players on the bench and the subs players, and firstly is always trying to get the best performance collectively, through individual players," Emery said.

"Harvey is a 10 number in our structure, in our shape, and he plays some matches and there is still adaptation to add himself individually in our structure, the task we have. Of course, he is training well, and his commitment is being very well as well, but his performance was not enough (up to this point). At the same time, we have other players who can play as a 10 and they are performing well, and I have different players.

"This is the main reason he is not playing the last matches minutes, but he has to continue working like he is doing in the training session and of course getting his confidence in the performance we need through him."

The only blip on Villa's recent record book came in a 2-1 loss at Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League last week. In that time, the Villans have claimed impressive wins over Tottenham and Manchester City, and have beaten both Bologna and Feyenoord in European competition.

Villa follow up their trip to Liverpool with a home game against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League, and then welcome Bournemouth in the Premier League before the international break.

Emery will hope to mastermind a first Villa win at Liverpool since Gabby Agbonlahor bagged the only goal of the game in a 1-0 victory back in 2014.