Coronation Street spoilers: Pat Phelan's next victim confirmed?

Quite possibly the Coronation Street cast's most dastardly villain since Richard Hillman, Pat Phelan looks set to slip back into his malevolent ways in time for Christmas.

He's currently lording it up over poor Anna Windass (Debbie Rush), who he framed for Seb Franklin's (Harry Visinoni) attempted murder, and his plan worked even better than he thought after he learns she's escaped police custody.

And with his hostages Andy Carver (Oliver Farnsworth) and Vinny Ashford (Ian Kelsey) quite literally sleeping with the fishes after he ditched their dead bodies in the bottom of the river, Phelan looks set to get away with murder.

But his plans start to unravel when Anna makes the risky decision to return to the cobbles in a bid to clear her name.

She heads straight to the builder's yard to find any evidence that links Phelan with the crime, but as she rattles around, an ominous pair of footsteps can be heard coming up the stairs.

We're sworn to secrecy about exactly what happens next, but things soon turn violent, with the following scenes seeing Phelan's wife, Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver) caught in the crossfire and rushed to hospital.

It's left unclear about who harmed Eileen, who has yet to uncover just how evil her husband is.

Could this be the moment she sees Phelan for what he truly is?

Or, in what would be a shocking twist, could it have been Anna that attacked Eileen as she becomes more and more desperate to prove herself innocent?

With Debbie Rush, who plays long-suffering Anna, confirmed to be leaving Coronation Street early next year, could this be the catalyst that sees her fleeing the cobbles for good?

Meanwhile, things aren't looking too good for Phelan, as Coronation Street spoilers have revealed Luke Britton (Dean Fagan) starts to smell a rat over Andy's disappearance.

Rapidly creating a tissue of lies, Phelan fobs Luke off and tells him Andy's moved to Birmingham, but feels more and more under pressure as Luke does a bit more digging and asks for his new address.

Could he be the one to bring the killer down?

Coronation Street continues Monday at 7:30pm and 8:30pm on ITV.