Richarlison scored twice to give Tottenham manager Thomas Frank a dream home debut with a 3-0 win over Burnley on Saturday, while Sunderland shocked West Ham 3-0 on their return to the Premier League.
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 Spurs’ 17-year trophy drought by lifting the Europa League.
However, Postecoglou was undone by a miserable return of six home league wins last season as Tottenham finished just above the relegation zone in 17th.
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 crashed in the Ghanaian’s delivery from the right.
Richarlison 🤯🤯
Mohammed Kudus gets his second assist of the match 😏
📺 Stream #TOTBUR on DStv: https://t.co/B0jLrQW5cc #SSPremierLeague pic.twitter.com/w0Q3aT9pcN
— SuperSport Football ⚽️ (@SSFootball) August 16, 2025
Brennan Johnson was Tottenham’s hero of the Europa League final with the only goal against Manchester United and he began the new season by racing clear to slot in the third.
Burnley racked up 100 points in their Championship promotion campaign last season but did little to suggest they will buck the trend of sides being relegated straight back to the second tier.
For the past two seasons, all three promoted teams have gone down.
However, big-spending Sunderland enjoyed a dream return to the top-flight with a second-half demolition of 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.
Centre-back Dan Ballard headed in the second before Wilson Isidor rounded off a huge win in stoppage time.
After eight years away, @SunderlandAFC are back in the Premier League with a BANG 😤 pic.twitter.com/R1LD4RrsT8
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 16, 2025
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