Stoke City vs Charlton Prediction

Right then, let's have a proper look at this Championship clash. Stoke City are sitting pretty in 3rd with 27 points, while Charlton are languishing in 13th on 23 points. On paper, it looks straightforward, but football's never that simple, is it?

Stoke's recent form has been a bit of a rollercoaster. They've lost their last two - 2-1 at Leicester and 0-1 at home to Coventry. But cast your mind back a bit further and they were smashing Bristol City 5-1 and putting three past Oxford United away. Proper Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde stuff!

Charlton, meanwhile, have got the exact same record over their last 10 games (4 wins, 3 draws, 3 losses), but their recent form looks worrying. They just got absolutely hammered 1-5 by Southampton at home and lost 0-1 to Wrexham. Not exactly the form you want when you're heading to one of the better home sides in the division.

Here's where it gets interesting - Stoke at home have been decent this season. They're winning 50% of their home games, scoring 1.75 goals per game and only letting in 0.75. Charlton away? Only winning 20% of their travels and scoring just 1 goal per game on average. That's a massive difference that tells its own story.

The stats back this up too - Stoke have more possession (53.3% vs 42.9%), create more shots (13.4 vs 11.7 per game), and are tighter at the back (0.8 vs 1.2 goals conceded per game). They just look like the better side all round.

The head-to-head is basically meaningless with only two games ever played, but Stoke did win the home meeting 3-1, though both games saw plenty of goals.

With Stoke's solid home record and Charlton's struggles on the road, this looks like a home win to me. The odds of 2.20 aren't massive value, but they're about right for what looks the most likely result.