Unai Emery admits Aston Villa could face a decision on Harvey Elliott's future in January. The Liverpool loanee has made just five appearances for Villa since his deadline day arrival, and hasn't been included in any of the last four Premier League matchday squads.

Whilst he was unable to feature against parent club Liverpool, Elliott was also left out of the squad entirely for fixtures against Manchester City, Bournemouth and Leeds United.

Should Elliott make 10 appearances for Villa, the club will be obligated to pay £35 million to sign the 22-year-old on a permanent basis.

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Consequently, speculation has emerged suggesting Emery is limiting Elliott's game time because he remains uncertain whether the midfielder would strengthen his squad long-term.

"We now have a lot of matches. We must focus on each match with the players we have now," Emery said when asked if Elliott has a future with Villa.

"We are not thinking about the transfer window in January. He is one of our players and hopefully he can help us. Then, we are going to decide."

When questioned about what Elliott needs to do to secure more playing time, Emery responded: "Firstly, there are other players performing very well. This is the first argument of why he is not playing. He is training very well every day."

Elliott was left out of the Villa squad last weekend for the trip to Elland Road, and 18-year-old George Hemmings was involved instead.

That essentially marked the lowest point in Elliott's time at Villa so far, and clearly has a lot of work to do to win Emery over in the coming weeks.

Villa play six matches in 17 days, before then hosting Manchester United in the Premier League before Christmas.

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