Baggies look to get back to winning ways against the Addicks

West Bromwich Albion v Charlton Athletic; The Hawthorns, Wednesday 2nd September 2026, 7.45pm

James Morrison’s Albion are looking to bounce back from their first defeat of the season as they welcome table-topping Charlton Athletic to the Hawthorns on Wednesday evening. Few would have expected Nathan Jones’ team to have a 100% record from three league games, particularly given that their second match was away to West Ham United, but an unexpected victory at the London Stadium and home wins over Derby County and Preston North End saw them lead the division after last weekend’s games.

For the Baggies, the 3-1 defeat at the Riverside seemed harsh on Mozza’s team as they certainly dominated periods of the game, but a horrendous refereeing decision, a little bad luck and some careless mistakes combined to hand the points to a very decent Middlesbrough team. Since then, the squad has been further strengthened by the signing of Toby Collyer from Manchester United along with another French fullback, Brayann Pereira, from NEC Nijmegen – if he’s half as good as either his namesake Matheus, or the last player we signed from that Dutch club, Jonas Olsson, he’ll turn out just fine!

I’m sure the club would have liked to have brought in another striker, but if they couldn’t bring in the right player for the right price, there’s no point in merely bringing in another body who is not going to improve the squad but will still cost wages – just remember Callum Marshall and Devante Cole. As we have seen already this season, there are plenty of players in the squad who can play off a striker and, once fit, Mikey Johnston will add to that number. It’s far from ideal, but they have brought in two strikers in this window, and one of them has certainly hit the ground running.

In all, it’s been a pretty impressive window in that the age profile and, inevitably, wage bill of the squad has been significantly reduced, and if the early stages of the season are anything to go by, the team looks better equipped, more exciting and has the potential to get better and better. Seven of the ten senior signings are 23 or younger with Felix Horn Myhre the only starter who is older than that at 27. Conor Townsend (33) and Matt Ingram (32) are the outliers and they are the only two players in the squad in their 30s. Interestingly, Albion have not entered the loan market at all – I don’t necessarily think that was the intention, but there does seem to have been a priority to develop talent for their own benefit, rather than that of a parent club.

There are a couple of new faces in the Addicks’ squad that will be familiar to Albion fans, not least Karlan Grant who scored the winner for his new club against Preston North End last weekend. Jones has also picked up Nathaniel Chalobah on a free transfer from Sheffield Wednesday while a couple of Irishmen, Danny McNamara from Millwall and Millenic Alli from Luton Town, moved to the club last month. Slovak centre-back, Ivan Mesík, joined from Dutch side, Heracles, while French defender, Billy Koumetio, has moved to the Valley from Dundee. Deadline day also saw them sign Junior Nkeng from AFC Wimbledon. Another name that may be familiar to some is new goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo – older brother to Albion U23 ‘keeper Brian, he made his name at Wrexham moving from Arsenal after a successful loan spell, and he has moved to the Addicks on a season long loan.

Unsurprisingly, it was Okonkwo who starred in their victory at West Ham with a host of fine saves albeit the points were ultimately secured when Castellanos hit the post with his stoppage time penalty with the Addicks’ ‘keeper diving the other way. If Charlton’s position in the table was not enough, that performance shows that Albion will need to perform well if they are to breach their defence. One would hope that the Baggies can defend better than West Ham did in that match, however.

As always, it will be interesting to see how Mozza approaches his team selection. Having kept his team for Middlesbrough unchanged from the one that beat Burnley, he has a couple of additional options available in Collyer and Tunde and, he may opt to go for a front two of Morgan and Heggebø as he did at Carrow Road on the opening day. I’d be surprised if Pereira gets anything more than a place on the bench given he only travelled to England on Tuesday morning, so I would expect the defensive setup unchanged even though they are yet to keep a clean sheet.

Further forward, however, there are a number of different options. Diakité, Price and Morgan are probably nailed on starters, and Whitwell would also be unfortunate to lose his place. If he goes for Heggebø alongside Morgan, it’s probably an option between Molumby and Myhre to partner Diakité – Nzingoula is still getting up to speed with the physicality of the Championship and, having started at St James’s Park, I’m not sure he’ll get another one just yet, while I’d be surprised to see Collyer brought straight in. It bodes well for a few weeks time when everyone, hopefully, will be up and running at 100%.

Having played three teams that were expected to attack, Charlton will present a different challenge in that they are likely to be defensive despite their lofty position. In recent seasons, Albion teams have struggled to defeat a low block – if Nathan Jones does opt for that, it will be interesting to see if Mozza’s men can find the answer.

History

With the Addicks having spent eight out of the last ten seasons in League One, this fixture hasn’t been a regular one in recent years. The clubs met last season, of course, with the south Londoners winning 1-0 at the Valley and the 1-1 draw at the Hawthorns proved to be the final nail in Eric Ramsay’s coffin as far as his tenure with the Baggies was concerned.

Before that, it was the 2019/20 season when the clubs met three times. Both clubs exited the Championship that season, albeit in opposite directions, but the two league games finished 2-2. At the Hawthorns in October, Albion led thanks to Matt Phillips tenth minute strike as he finished off Matheus Pereira’s cross and Bilić’s team forced visiting ‘keeper, Dillon Phillips into a string of fine saves. However, the game changed after the hour mark – firstly, when Kyle Bartley’s headed block fell kindly for Macauley Bonne to head in the equaliser, and then when Nathan Ferguson was dismissed for a rash challenge, albeit referee Matt Donohue had originally shown the red card to Grady Diangana by mistake. Although down to ten men, Albion continued to dominate and Hal Robson-Kanu looked to have won it when he curled in a fine strike from the edge of the box. Donohue had other ideas, however, as he somehow saw a clash between Semi Ajayi and Naby Sarr in the box as a penalty, and Josh Cullen converted it in the 94th minute to square the match.

Immediately before the league meeting at the Valley, the clubs met in the FA Cup third round also at the Valley. The visitors won that thanks to Kenneth Zohore’s first half strike – the Dane also scored Albion’s opener in the league match the following weekend, but that game ended 2-2.

The two clubs hadn’t met for more than a decade prior to the the 2019/20 season, but they had met four times in the 2007/08 campaign. The Baggies’ last league win over Charlton was at the Hawthorns in December 2007 when Tony Mowbray was the Baggies’ head coach. Chris Iwelumo gave Alan Pardew’s Addicks the lead before Roman Bednár equalised before half time. Zoltán Gera nodded in Chris Brunt’s cross to put the hosts 2-1 up just after the break before an error by stand-in ‘keeper Luke Steele let in a weak shot by Izale McLeod to make it 2-2 with less than 20 minutes remaining. Mowbray had Kevin Phillips on the bench, however, and, after Gera had headed in another Brunt cross, Kevin Phillips was on hand to make it 4-2 from a couple of yards out. It was a result that put Albion on top of the Championship table for the first time that season, the position they would ultimately finish in.

The FA Cup third round pitched the clubs together again and, after a 1-1 draw at the Valley, a late equaliser from the Addicks’ Chris Dixon forced extra time at the Hawthorns in the replay, and ultimately a penalty shoot out that Albion won with Bednár scoring the decisive kick – it was the first stage in the run a Wembley semi-final despite the Baggies being drawn away in every round.

The fourth meeting of that season was another draw, this time at the Valley in the league in March. Greg Halford gave the hosts the lead before Kevin Phillips equalised before the break. It finished 1-1.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

24 Feb 2026 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 1 (Campbell)
Charlton Athletic 1 (Dykes)

Last win

5 Jan 2020 – FA Cup 3rd Round
Charlton Athletic 0
West Bromwich Albion 1 (Zohore)

Last win at the Hawthorns

15 Dec 2007 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 4 (Bednár, Gera (2), Phillips)
Charlton Athletic 2 (Iwelumo, McLeod)

Albion’s Record against Charlton Athletic