Mousinho Prepares for Tough Championship Challenge as Portsmouth Face Charlton

John Mousinho has been in the Championship long enough now to know one thing: there are no soft landings here.

Portsmouth’s head coach has watched his side stutter through the opening weeks of the 2026-27 campaign, winning two and losing three of their first five matches. Mid-table feels about right for a team still working out what it wants to be at this level, and the numbers back that up – 17th in the table, flashes of promise, just as many reminders of the work still to come.

What has struck Mousinho most, though, is not Portsmouth’s inconsistency. It is the division itself.

This season’s Championship has welcomed two heavyweights from the Premier League in West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, clubs that in recent years have carried themselves like established top-flight fixtures. Their presence usually prompts an easy narrative: big budgets, big squads, big gap to the rest.

Mousinho is not buying it.

"It's already shown to be a tough and really competitive league," he told BBC Radio Solent, a hint of relish in the assessment rather than resignation. He does not see a procession forming at either end of the table. "I don't think there's going to be a pack that run away with it at the top and I don't think there'll be anyone cut off at the bottom."

The evidence, in his eyes, is already there. He points to West Ham’s midweek trip to Bolton Wanderers, a fixture that on paper looked like a mismatch: a side freshly relegated from the Premier League against a team that only just climbed out of League One. It finished 3-2 to West Ham. Tight. Nervy. Anything but a cruise.

"If you look at one of the games last week in Bolton v West Ham you had a really tight game between a side that have come up from League One against one of the relegated sides from the Premier League," Mousinho said. The gap, if it exists at all, is far narrower than reputations suggest.

That is the landscape Portsmouth are trying to navigate. They arrive at the weekend buoyed by a win over Cardiff City, a result that steadied nerves after a patchy start and offered a reminder of their capacity to hurt teams. Confidence, though, is fragile in a division that never lets you breathe for long.

Charlton Athletic await on Saturday afternoon (15:00 BST), and they arrive with the kind of early-season form that demands respect. The Addicks sit fifth, having played a game more, after opening with three wins, two draws and just a single defeat. It is not spectacular, but it is solid, and in the Championship solid goes a long way.

"Charlton have had a really good start," Mousinho said, fully aware of the scale of the task. Their summer mirrored Portsmouth’s in one important respect: busy recruitment, new faces, new ideas, new energy. "They've had a really busy summer as we have in terms of recruitment in bringing players in, they also had a really good season back in the Championship after their promotion from League One and I fully expect them to build upon that."

The admiration is genuine, the warning clear. Charlton have not just settled back into the division; they have used last season as a springboard. "They've had a really strong start to the season and I expect a tough test," Mousinho added.

Portsmouth, sitting in 17th and still searching for rhythm, now walk into that test knowing there is little margin for error. In a league Mousinho describes as “tough and really competitive” from top to bottom, the question for Pompey is simple: can they turn the grind of early autumn into the platform for a serious climb, or will they be dragged into the chaos that seems to be swallowing everyone else?