Charlton Athletic will welcome promotion hopefuls Wycombe Wanderers to The Valley for their New Year's Day showdown in League One.
Both sides head into this encounter off the back of 1-0 defeats in their most recent league matches, with the Addicks losing to Plymouth Argyle, while the Chairboys were beaten by Ipswich Town.
Match preview
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After seeing their two league fixtures either side of Christmas against AFC Wimbledon and Gillingham postponed due to coronavirus, Charlton Athletic are now preparing for their first game of 2022, with the hope of extending their impressive unbeaten run at The Valley.
The Addicks have won six and drawn one of their last seven home matches across all competitions, winning each of their last three league games on their own turf by a 2-0 scoreline.
The appointment of Johnnie Jackson has helped Charlton's fortunes turn around drastically, though there is still a lot of work to be done if they are to finish the campaign in the playoffs.
Charlton currently sit 12th in the League One table, 13 points behind Saturday's opponents Wycombe Wanderers in sixth.
The Addicks will be confident of kick-starting the New Year with a victory, having already claimed points against six of the teams currently above them in the table.
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Wycombe Wanderers were unable to extend their unbeaten run to six matches as they suffered a 1-0 defeat away against Ipswich on Wednesday night.
James Norwood's 44th-minute strike was enough to condemn the Chairboys to their fifth league defeat of the season, in a game which manager Gareth Ainsworth was forced to miss after testing positive for COVID-19.
The second longest-serving manager in the football league may have to watch on from home again on New Year's Day, with Richard Dobson and Matt Bloomfield, who led the team at Portman Road, expected to be in the dugout once again for the clash with Charlton.
Wycombe have lost each of their last three visits to The Valley, conceding eight goals in the process, but they were able to beat Charlton 2-1 on home soil in September.
Victory on Saturday could see the Chairboys climb up to fourth in the table and just two points off the summit if other results were to go their way.
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Team News
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Charlton will still be without midfielder Jake Forster-Caskey who continues to recover from a cruciate ligament injury.
Adam Matthews, Corey Blackett-Taylor and Sam Lavelle have all returned to first-team training, though Saturday's game will come too soon for the trio.
Jackson admitted that Ryan Inniss was forced to return to first-team action sooner than they had hoped due to other injuries within his squad, but the defender has since been training well and will be in contention to feature this weekend.
Akin Famewo and Deji Elerewe both picked up injuries just before Christmas and are expected to miss out against Wycombe, however, Conor Washington could return to the first XI and play alongside Jayden Stockley in attack.
As for Wycombe Ryan Tafazolli, Dominic Gape and Nick Freeman are all doubtful with knocks while Sullay Kaikai is unavailable as he is preparing to represent Sierra Leone at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Adebayo Akinfenwa, Daryl Horgan, Josh Scowen and Jack Grimmer will all be hoping that they can force their way into the first XI, with the latter potentially starting at right wing-back at the expense of David Wheeler, who made his 100th appearance for the Chairboys in midweek.
Attacking trio Sam Vokes, Brandon Hanlan and Gareth McCleary, who have scored 15 league goals between them this season, are expected to start once again.
Charlton Athletic possible starting lineup:
MacGillivray; Clare, Pearce, Famewo; Jaiyesimi, Gilby, Dobson, Lee, Souare; Stockley, Washington
Wycombe Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Stockdale; McCarthy, Stewart, Jacobson; Grimmer, Mehmeti, Thompson, Obita; McCleary; Hanlan, Vokes
We say: Charlton Athletic 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers
A closely-fought contest between two sides in the top half of the table is to be expected at The Valley, with both teams hoping to return to winning ways after losing their last league matches.
There is little to separate both Charlton and Wycombe, so a score draw could be on the cards this weekend.
Top tip
Oliver Thomas
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Charlton Athletic win with a probability of 47.34%. A win for Wycombe Wanderers had a probability of 27.07% and a draw had a probability of 25.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Charlton Athletic win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.19%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.27%) and 2-0 (8.53%). The likeliest Wycombe Wanderers win was 0-1 (7.99%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.17%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 8% likelihood.
