LONDON — Tottenham manager Thomas Frank enjoyed a “dream” home debut with a 3-0 win over Burnley, while Erling Haaland inspired new-look Manchester City’s 4-0 rout of Wolves on the opening weekend of the Premier League season yesterday.
Frank was seconds away from launching his era in charge with a trophy until a late Paris Saint-Germain revival won the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday.
The former Brentford boss replaced Ange Postecoglou despite the Australian ending Tottenham’s 17-year trophy drought by lifting the Europa League last term.
Postecoglou was undone by Tottenham’s worst domestic season since 1976-77 as they finished just above the relegation zone in 17th place.
Richarlison made the most of the faith shown in him by Frank as the Brazilian turned in Mohammed Kudus’ cross to open the scoring.
The pair combined again on the hour in more spectacular fashion as Richarlison’s bicycle kick converted the Ghanaian’s delivery.
Brennan Johnson was Tottenham’s Europa League final hero with the only goal against Manchester United and he began the new season by racing clear to slot in the third.
“Perfect start or dream start. A good performance against a difficult opponent. I will just enjoy it and I hope the players, the club and the fans enjoy it because that is important,” Frank said.
At Molineux, Pep Guardiola unveiled his City revamp as he bids to bounce back from last season’s third-place finish.
City’s failure to defend the title after winning it for the previous four seasons has prompted a major overhaul from Guardiola.
Despite Haaland’s double, it was new signing Tijjani Reijnders who stole the show with a hand in all of City’s first three goals.
“We knew he is a top signing for the coming years for City,” said Guardiola on Reijnders outstanding Premier League debut after a £46.5 million move from AC Milan.
“Of course we have changed after last season with many injuries and problems - fresh energy this season.”
Reijnders stroked in his first City goal in between two predatory finishes from Haaland.
Another City new boy Rayan Cherki, lured from Lyon in the summer, rounded off the scoring.
For the past two seasons, all three promoted teams have gone down.
Sunderland made the perfect start to attempting to buck that trend with a 3-0 victory over West Ham.
Former Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka is among pool of new signings attracted to the Stadium of Light.
But it was three players key to their promotion back to the Premier League for the first time since 2017 who scored.
Eliezer Mayenda’s looping header gave the Black Cats lift off on the hour mark.
