Preview: Charlton Athletic vs Leicester City - prediction, team news, lineups

Newly-promoted Charlton Athletic will welcome recently-relegated Leicester City to The Valley for Saturday’s Championship contest.

The Addicks have taken four points from their opening two games, while the Foxes head into the weekend with three points to their name.

Match preview

Charlton are competing in the Championship for the first time since 2019-20 after winning promotion via the League One playoffs last season.

Nathan Jones’s side have made a positive start to the new campaign, having recorded two wins and one draw in three competitive matches.

They kicked off the new season with a narrow 1-0 win over Watford, before they dispatched League One Stevenage via a 3-1 scoreline in the EFL Cup first round.

Charlton then picked up a point in their first away game of the season, playing out a goalless draw in last Saturday’s meeting with Bristol City at Ashton Gate.

The Addicks are just one of the teams yet to concede in the Championship this season, and they now have the chance to start a league campaign with three consecutive clean sheets in one of the top two tiers for the first time in 27 years.

The hosts have not faced Leicester since March 2014, but they may still be able to draw inspiration from the fact that they have lost just one of their previous 11 head-to-head league matches (W6, D4).

Leicester are back in the Championship after enduring a tough season in the Premier League, where they collected just 25 points from 38 top-flight matches.

After parting ways with Ruud van Nistelrooy in the summer, the Foxes turned to former QPR boss Marti Cifuentes to lead their bid to secure an immediate return to the Premier League.

Cifuentes has made an underwhelming start to his tenure, requiring a late goal to beat struggling Sheffield Wednesday, before seeing his side lose on penalties to Huddersfield Town in the EFL Cup first round.

Leicester then looked set to play out a 1-1 draw in last Saturday's away clash with Preston North End after Jeremy Monga cancelled out Alfie Devine's opener, but a late Milutin Osmajic goal ultimately left the Foxes with nothing to show for their efforts.

They will be looking to produce a response in their first meeting with Charlton since recording a 3-0 home victory in March 2014.

After going nine away league games without a win, Leicester will enter Saturday's fixture with hopes of claiming their first league victory on the road since beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in January.

Charlton Athletic Championship form:

W D

Charlton Athletic form (all competitions):

W W D

Leicester City Championship form:

W L

Leicester City form (all competitions):

W L L

Team News

Charlton are still unable upon to call upon defender Reece Burke and forward Matty Godden due to their respective injury issues.

Jones is likely to keep changes to a minimum, although Miles Leaburn could be given the chance to lead the line after playing the final 30 minutes of last Saturday’s draw with Bristol City.

At the opposite end of the pitch, the Charlton boss is expected to stick with Kayne Ramsay, Lloyd Jones, Amari’i Bell and Josh Edwards after they kept clean sheets in the first two league games.

As for the visitors, they are still without the injured trio of Harry Souttar, Victor Kristiansen and Bobby De Cordova-Reid, while Bilal El Khannouss could be absent amid speculation suggesting that he could be closing in on a move to Crystal Palace.

Cifuentes has revealed that a decision is yet to be made on James Justin's availability after he sustained a dead leg in the defeat to Preston, although the Leeds-linked defender is said to be progressing well in his recovery.

Club captain Ricardo Pereira has recovered from a hamstring injury and is now set to feature in the matchday squad for the first time this season

Charlton Athletic possible starting lineup:

Kaminski; Ramsay, Jones, Bell, Edwards; Docherty, Coventry; Apter, Carey, Campbell; Leaburn

Leicester City possible starting lineup:

Stolarczyk; Justin, Okoli, Vestegaard, Thomas; Winks, Soumare; Fatawu, Daka, Monga; Ayew

We say: Charlton Athletic 1-1 Leicester City

We think that Charlton may struggle to record another clean sheet in Saturday's contest, but having avoided defeat in their opening three competitive matches, we believe that the Addicks will do enough to hold Leicester to a point with the backing of the home support at The Valley.

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