2025-26 Sky Bet Championship: Week Three – Saturday

Charlton Athletic look to continue their unbeaten start against Leicester City at The Valley. 

Depending on results elsewhere, victory could lift Charlton into the top six.

Leicester meanwhile can overtake the Addicks and move into the top ten with a win.

 

Team News

Charlton will have Will Mannion available after he missed their goalless draw at Bristol City due to a minor injury.

Reece Burke (unspecified) could feature if fit enough for selection following his return to training, but Matty Godden (knee) remain absent.

Leicester could be without James Justin and Bilal El Khannouss amidst rumours about their futures at the club.

Victor Kristiansen (knock), Bobby De Cordova Reid (unspecified) and Harry Souttar (Achilles) are still ruled out.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Charlton host Leicester at The Valley on Saturday 23 August at 12;30pm BST, live on Sky Sports Football in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Charlton have lost just one of their last 11 league meetings against Leicester (W6, D4, L1)
• Leicester are winless in their last seven league visits to Charlton (D2, L5), since a 1-0 win in April 1996.
• Charlton have won two of their three previous meetings at home to Leicester played in the month of August (W2, L1), albeit without keeping a clean sheet in those three matches.
• Nathan Jones’ Addicks are chasing three consecutive clean sheets in the second tier for the first time since June 2020, which ultimately saw them suffer relegation at end of 2019-20 season.
• Leicester are yet to score a first-half goal in all competitions this season (W1, D1, L1).

 

Prediction

Having enjoyed an unbeaten start in their first two games back in the Championship with clean sheets, Charlton now face arguably their first proper test of the season but they can take confidence from their defensive resilience which grinded out a draw at Bristol City.

Leicester meanwhile are yet to keep a clean sheet under Marti Cifuentes and particularly struggled to deal with Preston’s mix of long ball passes and crosses in their defeat at Deepdale, so hopefully they can bounce back but if they lose Justin and El Khannouss then they have big positions to replace quickly.

The Foxes’ record at The Valley also isn’t particularly impressive in recent decades so a draw might be a fair result.

Prediction: Charlton 1-1 Leicester

Result: Charlton 0-1 Leicester