Preview: West Ham face Charlton in first Championship home game since 2012 | OneFootball

West Ham will welcome Charlton Athletic to the London Stadium on Saturday afternoon in front of a sell-out 62,500 crowd for their second match of the EFL Championship campaign.

The 2026/27 EFL Championship season kicked off last weekend. Charlton started the season by coming from behind and beating Derby County 2-1. Whilst the Hammers took a 2-0 lead away at Burnley; however, Zian Flemming’s late brace for the hosts meant they only came away with a point.

Debutant Manor Solomon opened his account for the East London side, and since the 2-2 draw, West Ham have made further signings. Arne Engels joined the club from Celtic in a Championship record deal, and Leeds United Striker Joël Piroe joined on loan until the end of the season. Manchester City youngster Divine Mukasa also looks set to join the Hammers on loan. These arrivals will undoubtedly bolster West Ham’s squad going into the weekend’s game, which the visitors will obviously have to be wary of.

Charlton have strengthened their squad since their opening-day victory, with goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo arriving on loan from Wrexham.

The two sides have not met since September 2020, when West Ham recorded a 3-0 victory over Charlton in the Carabao Cup. Sébastien Haller scored a brace, with Felipe Anderson grabbing the third. There has been a 19-year gap between league meetings, with the last one coming in February 2007, when Charlton beat West Ham 4-0 at The Valley in the Premier League.

Ahead of the fixture, Hammers boss Nuno Espírito Santo confirmed that both Engels and Piroe will be available for selection.

On the contrary, forward Pablo Felipe will need to be assessed after he was forced off at half-time against Burnley with a reported calf issue. Tomáš Souček will also be unavailable as he continues to nurse the serious injury he suffered at the World Cup.

“We have some problems with injuries. Players who are not going to be available. It’s about assessing them day by day. We have one more day, then we’re going to make the squad list,” stated Nuno at Thursday afternoon’s pre-match press conference.

Charlton manager Nathan Jones hinted that summer signing Timothy Ouma could be involved after missing the opening game of the season.

“Ouma was fine the other day in the U21s. The intensity of a Championship fixture and an U21S fixture are vastly different; he has hardly trained, and he had visa issues early on. That wait prevented us from being able to bring him back over from Kenya, so he has missed a lot of pre-season, and we are building him up; it is a work in progress.”

Jones was also full of praise for the hosts, stating that ‘everything about West Ham is Premier League’.

“It’s a wonderful game to test ourselves against a Premier League club really. I know they came down, but everything about them is Premier League. The stadium, the crowd, the finances- they have managed to keep the majority of their players and add, so arguably they are as strong as they were last year. It’s a tough fixture.”