Harwood-Bellis has chance to make his mark at Villa

"His time is coming," said Unai Emery when asked about Taylor Harwood-Bellis.

The £30m defender has had to wait for his chance at Aston Villa following his move from Southampton but now has the opportunity to prove his worth.

He is expected to make his debut against Coventry in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, having endured a frustrating start to life at Villa Park.

Left out of the Champions League squad and yet to feature since his arrival, the 24-year-old has already had his patience tested just over two weeks after joining.

Bought to replace Ezri Konsa after his £51m move to Arsenal, Harwood-Bellis comes in as Villa need stability at the back following a damaging weekend.

Villa conceded 22 shots against Nottingham Forest in Saturday's 2-1 defeat, following the 21 in the opening weekend collapse at Brighton.

Forest's expected goals was 1.92 and Villa won just 35.3% of their tackles.

They also lost Pau Torres and left-back Ian Maatsen to injury - Maatsen's late ankle problem left Villa down to 10 men after Emery used all his substitutes before Igor Jesus scored a late winner.

Maatsen is sidelined until November and Torres' hamstring problem will keep him out for three weeks, with the visit of Brentford on 10 October after the international break a potential return date.

Matty Cash has also been nursing a muscle problem, which kept him out of the 3-2 Champions League win at Club Brugge and Saturday's loss against his former club.

It means it will be a untried defence at CBS Arena on Wednesday, with left-back Matteo Ruggeri likely to make his full debut alongside former Manchester City youngster Harwood-Bellis.

Victor Lindelof has started all six of Villa's games so far, including the Super Cup defeat by Paris St-Germain last month, so should be rested at Coventry.

It is the problem Emery faces, trying to integrate his new players while needing to get quick results following Villa's poor start to the season.

He has faith in his players but the pressure will be on for Harwood-Bellis - who scored on his only England appearance, against the Republic of Ireland in 2024 - to perform as he returns to the Premier League after a chastening previous campaign in the top flight.

With Southampton in 2024-25, when the Saints managed just 12 points and finished bottom of the Premier League, Harwood-Bellis made four errors leading to goals.

That season he made an average of 0.9 tackles a game, compared to Konsa's 1.0 and made 1.4 blocks and 4.5 clearances per 90 minutes, in a struggling team.

A ball-playing centre-back, he made an average of 67.6 passes per game, comfortably clear of Konsa's 50.

Last season, as Southampton were kicked out of the Championship play-offs following the Spygate scandal, he made 7.4 clearances per game, 0.8 tackles and 0.9 interceptions.

Along with young striker Brian Madjo and fellow defender Modou Cisse, Harwood-Bellis was left out for Europe by Emery as the head coach failed to find room.

It has happened before, with Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia last season - Malen eventually left for Roma last January as he looked for more playing time and responsibility.

Emery is banking on the flexibility of Lamare Bogarde and Boubacar Kamara to fill in at the back if his defence is stretched, although that will be of little comfort to Harwood-Bellis.

"Because in Europe you can have 23 players and in the league not," Emery said. "[Mikel] Arteta wanted to open it for more players. We needed to take off someone, and it was Taylor.

"It is hard, the decision we took, and for the players. The experience we have here, when we were without Malen, Andres. To decide, it is through the analysis of how we are expecting to be until January.

"We are going to play eight matches. Cisse is not in because he is injured. Madjo is still injured for the next two weeks minimum. Taylor arrived as the last one, and we can get the balance with Lamare Bogarde, and we can even play Kamara.

"We tried to analyse it deeply. Taylor will be here for a long time, and hopefully, we will have the opportunity to play in Europe with us, in January maybe, and the next few years."