The Championship action resumes this weekend after the international break with a full slate of fixtures, and we start by looking ahead to the clash between surprise package, Charlton Athletic, and visitors, Birmingham City at The Valley this Saturday afternoon.
Following a triumphant campaign in last season’s League One which culminated in promotion for Charlton Athletic, Lee Bowyer’s side have come out of the blocks in quick fashion in their return to the Championship as the hosts occupy 2nd place in the second tier and just 2 points behind league leaders, Swansea City.
Charlton remain one of only three teams yet to taste defeat in this season’s Championship, winning 4 of their 6 matches so far this term with victories over Blackburn Rovers, Stoke City, Brentford and Reading, along with taking points off Barnsley and Nottingham Forest in 2-2 and 1-1 draws respectively.
The Addicks now return to The Valley where they’ve lost just 1 of their last 20 competitive matches, which was a loss to League Two side, Forest Green Rovers, on penalties in the League Cup - Charlton are therefore unbeaten in their last 20 matches at home in all competitions during the regular 90 minutes.
Birmingham City entered the international break on the back of a valuable 2-1 home win against early strugglers, Stoke City, despite going a goal down.
With only just over 15 minutes remaining, Birmingham stage a late comeback thanks to goals from striker, Jutkiewicz and Bellingham, the latter taking a massive deflection to hand The Blues a welcome three points.
While Birmingham still remain unbeaten on home turf at St Andrews, the visitors have lost 2 of their 3 matches away from home so far this season in the Championship having suffered back-to-back defeats at Nottingham Forest and Swansea City, both by 3-0 margins.
Even Birmingham’s opening away win of the season over Brentford 1-0 at Griffin Park was a touch fortunate as The Blues scored from their only shot on target in the whole match which turned out to be a header from outside the box!
Birmingham’s lack of goals on the road could potentially be a big problem for the visitors this season, having lost the likes of Adams and Jota, but Charlton will be confident that they can exploit goal-shy Birmingham City at The Valley on Saturday.