West Ham United were beaten 1-2 at the London Stadium by Charlton Athletic on Saturday 22 August 2026, their first home match of the Championship season. Lloyd Jones and Tyreece Campbell opened the scoring for the Addicks, with a second goal from Joel Piroe in the 74th minute, before Taty Castellanos missed a late penalty that would have salvaged a point for the hosts.
The match began with West Ham taking the lead in the seventh minute. A long throw from Sonny Carey was controlled on the chest by Lloyd Jones, who produced an overhead finish past Charlton keeper Mads Hermansen. The hosts were denied a second chance when a cross from Manor Solomon was headed for a corner by Charlton centre-back Billy Koumetio.
West Ham’s chances were limited in the first half. Miles Leaburn clipped a crossbar in the 19th minute, and a counter-attack was sparked when Tyreece Campbell dispossessed Kyle Walkers-Peter. Carey's final attempt at the near post was blocked by Hermansen, and a header from Taty Castellanos in first-half stoppage time was straight at Arthur Okonkwo.
Charlton doubled their advantage in the 56th minute when Tyreece Campbell finished clinically across Hermansen after a turnover by Konstantinos Mavropanos. Okonkwo made a one-handed save at the hour mark to keep out Piroe’s shot from the edge of the penalty area.
West Ham increased pressure in the second half, but Piroe’s first attempt had missed a close-range header. He finally broke through in the 74th minute after Okonkwo had parried a shot from Castellanos. The Charlton keeper produced a tip over to frustrate substitute Divine Mukasa, who had joined on loan from Manchester City earlier that week.
Joe Rankin-Costello had a chance to add a third for Charlton, but Hermansen kept out the effort with his legs. West Ham were given a lifeline in stoppage time when referee Andrew Kitchen penalised Conor Coventry for handball, but Castellanos’ spot-kick hit the base of the right post.
West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo said: “We trust Taty to take the penalties. I don’t know if he will take the next one, we will have to decide. We started badly again. We got punished from a situation where we know Charlton create problems. It became much harder but we still created a lot of situations but were not accurate enough in the boxes.”
Charlton manager Nathan Jones praised his side: “We can’t get carried away because this is the norm now. We had to be very organised and good tactically. First half we were excellent, countered really well and probably could have created a little more with better decisions in the final third.”
The defeat leaves West Ham with a single point after a 2-0 loss at home, while Charlton maintain a perfect start to their Championship campaign.
