Charlton Athletic kept their perfect start to the Championship season intact with a 2-1 win at West Ham United, piling further pressure on Hammers head coach Nuno Espirito Santo after just two league games. Joël Piroe, on his full debut on loan from Leeds, and Arne Engels, signed for an EFL-record £22m fee, both started for West Ham, but the hosts fell to defeat despite Taty Castellanos missing a stoppage-time penalty that would have salvaged a point.
Charlton led inside six minutes when Lloyd Jones converted Sonny Carey's long throw-in, catching West Ham's defence unprepared. Manor Solomon's low shot was blocked behind for a corner at the other end and Miles Leaburn struck the crossbar before Castellanos headed a first-half stoppage-time chance straight at Charlton goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo, himself making his loan debut after joining from Wrexham days earlier.
Charlton doubled their lead in the 55th minute when Konstantinos Mavropanos was dispossessed near his own box and Tyreece Campbell finished into the corner. West Ham pulled one back through Piroe in the 73rd minute, converting after Okonkwo had parried a Castellanos effort, and pushed for an equaliser before Castellanos was booked for simulation. In stoppage time, referee Andrew Kitchen penalised Conor Coventry for handball, but Castellanos's resulting penalty struck the base of the post.
"It's a big club. You just see our fans. There were 62,000 people in the stands and we let them down," Nuno said after the match. "We created a lot of situations but we weren't accurate enough in the boxes," he added, reflecting on a game his side finished with 78% of possession. "This season, it's clear that we're going to be protagonists and will have more of the ball... We're going to repeat, repeat, repeat, but keep the belief in the process. We're going to get together and bounce back."