Charlton Athletic v CHELSEA: FA Cup Preview

Date: Saturday tenth January 2026

Venue: The Valley

Kick-off: 20:00 GMT

Effectively, Rosenior’s huge managerial debut sees him whisked off to The Valley, the place he’ll attempt to information us previous Charlton Athletic within the FA Cup third spherical. If he’s below the phantasm that dealing with a Championship facet goes to be straightforward in comparison with the Fulham catastrophe, he clearly wasn’t watching correctly Wednesday evening. That Fulham sport? Finest left within the reminiscence bin. Eghbali picked his beginning XI by closing his eyes and spinning a bottle, and McFarlane’s substitutions regarded suspiciously like he’d let predictive textual content take the wheel – perhaps subsequent time, Siri can handle the workforce. The one vivid spot was the away followers, who have been so spectacular they most likely deserved a contract themselves. In the meantime, the anticipated slide down the desk is underway, and in a shock twist worthy of Blue co’s normal decision-making, McFarlane’s reward is a shiny spot on the primary workforce employees. Who noticed that coming? (Not Mystic Meg, apparently.)

Rosenior talked sport in his presser,
however as any Chelsea fan is aware of, phrases price nothing – besides whenever you’re on a
six-year deal and destined to be paid handsomely to take a stroll in a yr. However
earlier than Rosenior begins eyeing severance packages, he’s acquired a little bit of alchemy to
try: turning this squad from a pig’s ear into one thing vaguely resembling
a silk purse. It’s not wanting promising, judging by earlier makes an attempt.
Charlton themselves have been enduring their very own ache, sitting nineteenth within the
Championship and boasting simply 2 wins of their final 14 – so that they’ll be licking their
lips after our toothless midweek displaying.

Let’s make a journey down reminiscence lane: the final
time these two met, it was the Premier League 2007, and Frank Lampard (sure, we
actually did have legends again then) banged within the winner to offer us the three factors.
No factors at stake tonight fortunately, though hopefully the sport will deliver a
entire lot of earache for Eghbali and Clearlake once more – and presumably development
to the fourth spherical – though I wouldn’t rely on the latter.

MANAGER’S VIEWS

Going into immediately’s sport, Charlton supervisor, Nathan
Jones, says “You begin on the third spherical [when you’re in the
Championship] and also you’ve acquired that chance of getting an enormous one, which is
at all times good as a result of it’s a check, it’s not as a result of we wish to high-five Liam
Delap or anybody. What now we have to verify is that it doesn’t turn out to be simply an
autograph session. It turns into a correct sport the place we are able to check ourselves, check
our construction, check what we do.”

Eghbali’s newest gofer, Liam Rosenior,
in the meantime, says “Nathan [Jones] is high. He’s had an excellent profession as a
supervisor. It’ll be a really tough sport. They play with actual
depth, they’re very, very tough to play in opposition to. It’s going to be a
typical English cup third spherical tie in January, and my gamers have to be in a position
to face as much as that depth.”

SQUAD NEWS

For Charlton, Kayne Ramsay and Onel Hernandez (each hamstring), Josh Edwards (ankle) and Matty Godden (knee) are injured.

For Chelsea, Levi Colwill (knee), and Romeo Lavia, Dario Essugo (each
thigh) stay out injured. Mykhaylo Mudryk remains to be suspended long-term, while
Cucurella serves a ban for a daft problem within the sport in opposition to Fulham.

TEAMS

CHARLTON (Doable
line-up): Kaminski;
Gillesphey, Jones, Bell; Bree, Docherty, Coventry, Carey, Campbell; Leaburn,
Kelman

CHELSEA (Doable line-up): Jorgensen; Acheampong, Fofana, Badiashile, Hato; Caicedo, Santos, Gittens; Estevao, Garnacho, Delap

LAST MEETING

Charlton 0-1 Chelsea (third February 2007)

CURRENT FORM (ALL)

CHARLTON: DWLLDD

CHELSEA: WDLDDL

OTHER STUFF

That is the primary assembly since 2007 Charlton have misplaced eight of their final 11 in
all competitions in opposition to their London rivals Chelsea have confronted Charlton twice earlier than in
the FA Cup, successful each video games 3-0 – within the fourth roundCharlton have been eradicated in every of
their final 5 FA Cup third spherical tiesChelsea have progressed from 61 of their final
63 FA Cup ties in opposition to sides from a decrease division

PREDICTION

Sportsmole: Charlton 0-2 Chelsea