5 players who could shine in the Community Shield

We’ve got less than 10 days to go before the start of the new Premier League season, but the pre-season officially ends on Sunday with the Community Shield – a showdown that’s worth a lot more than some people would suggest.

This season sees 2016/17 league winners Chelsea take on FA Cup winners Arsenal in a classic grudge match between two London rivals. The stage is set for both sides to put in star performances, but here are five who will be looking to impress more than anyone else.

#5 Alvaro Morata

Chelsea’s newest signing, striker Alvaro Morata arrived with much fanfare from Real Madrid for a reported £58m. And not only is the pressure on him to succeed due to such a hefty price tag, but also because manager Antonio Conte is expecting him to become the replacement for the outcast Diego Costa, who was famously told via text message that he no longer had a future at the club.

With only Michy Batshuayi as backup – youngsters Tammy Abraham and Dominic Solanke are no longer with the Blues – Morata is essentially Chelsea’s only top striker, assuming the relationship with Costa is truly dead in the water. But he seems up for the challenge, as he’s said Chelsea were the only club he truly wanted to move to. His goal record is also promising – while he wasn’t prolific over two seasons at Juventus, last season saw him hit a solid 15 goals in 26 La Liga games for Real, some of which saw him come off the bench.

If he settles in quickly he could prove to be a major hit, and scoring a goal or two to shoot down Arsenal in the Community Shield would endear him to the Chelsea faithful instantly – as well as pay back some of Conte’s faith in signing him for such a lofty price.

#4 Alexandre Lacazette

Alexandre Lacazette has already started scoring for Arsenal

Arsenal’s big signing of the summer was French hitman Alexandre Lacazette, signed from Lyon for £46.5m. He was an expensive signing, but Arsene Wenger is hoping he can fire the Gunners back to glory – his record in France was absolutely phenomenal, with the last four seasons seeing the striker clear the 20-goal mark; his high point was last season, which saw him hit 37 in all competitions.

He doesn’t seem to have slowed down in the transition to Arsenal at all, either. He scored in his pre-season debut against Sydney FC and then added a goal in the Emirates Cup against top-level opposition in Sevilla.

With last season’s top scorer Alexis Sanchez likely unavailable for the Community Shield due to an injury, it looks like the goal scoring burden will fall on the shoulders of Lacazette to, and with a goal record like his, it’s hard to bet against him delivering again.

If Lacazette does so, then he’ll already have written himself into Arsenal’s history books, and may give the Gunners fans something to smile about following a close season that’s essentially seen Wenger submit to the idea of losing Sanchez next summer. Could Arsenal really have their new Thierry Henry?

#3 Rob Holding

Rob Holding is developing into one of Arsenal's key defenders

A signing that flew under the radar for Arsenal last summer, young defender Rob Holding was thrown way into the deep end when he made his first-team debut last August in the Premier League opener against Liverpool.

Holding was painfully exposed as the Reds ran out 4-3 winners. It could well have signalled that he wasn’t ready for the big time, but the England u21 international bounced back in style.

When Arsene Wenger switched to a 3-4-3 system in the final two months of the season, Holding returned to the starting line-up as part of a three-man defence and looked totally at home. In fact, Arsenal won all six of the Premier League games that Holding started in, and the youngster then went on to star in their FA Cup final win, coincidentally also against Chelsea.

If Holding can continue the form he ended last season with – and shut out Chelsea’s forward line again as he did three months ago in the cup final – then Gareth Southgate will have little choice but to look at him for England’s 2018 World Cup squad. The time is ripe for Rob Holding and the Community Shield could be an excellent spring board.

#2 Michy Batshuayi

Could Michy Batshuayi use the Community Shield to cement himself in Chelsea's starting line-up?

Belgian international striker Batshuayi was signed for a solid transfer fee of £33m last summer, but spent most of the season confined to the bench due to the form of Diego Costa and Antonio Conte’s habit of playing with just one central striker.

Still, his goal record was impressive – five EPL goals in just 236 minutes of play, averaging a goal every 47 minutes. Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin has even gone as far as to claim that the Belgian is more clinical in front of goal than Tottenham’s Harry Kane, who won last season’s Golden Boot.

With Costa now on the outs with Conte, and his replacement, Alvaro Morata, expected to start on the left of Chelsea’s three-man attacking trio due to the injury suffered by Batshuayi’s compatriot Eden Hazard, the Community Shield could prove to be the big chance for Batshuayi to prove his worth at Stamford Bridge.

Essentially, there’s very little competition for him now. It helps that he’s been so impressive during the pre-season for Chelsea, banging in three goals thus far.

Two of them came in July’s 3-0 victory in Beijing against none other than...Arsenal, of course. Conte praised the 23-year-old's hard work following that performance and the stage is set this weekend for the Belgian to star again. Even with Morata involved, he’s Chelsea’s danger man.

#1 Danny Welbeck

Danny Welbeck is fully fit and looks as dangerous as ever

When Arsenal signed Danny Welbeck back in the summer of 2014, not only was Arsene Wenger looking to fill the Robin van Persie-shaped hole at the front of their attack, but he was also hoping for a star player for the future.

Unfortunately, neither has happened – Welbeck just isn’t a clinical goalscorer, but he performed well in his first season overall. Unfortunately, though, injuries reared their head and kept him sidelined for much of 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Now though? Welbeck is back, he’s fully fit, and with Alexandre Lacazette installed as Arsenal’s first-choice hitman up front, the England man can be deployed in probably his best position – as a quick-footed attacking midfielder. Welbeck floats out wide and back in, almost acting at times as a ‘false #9’, a position that allows him to make the most of his seemingly never-ending gas tank.

Basically, for a defender, he’s horrible to play against when he’s healthy and on form.

Chelsea’s defence were excellent last season, but while David Luiz has improved to the point of being reliable now, Gary Cahill can still be a liability at times and the Blues are also likely to be without new signing Antonio Rudiger.

This gives Welbeck a chance to really get at Chelsea’s back line and if he can expose them, he could transform himself into the Arsenal superstar he always wanted to be. The Community Shield is his big chance.