Premier League Week 1 Results: Black Cats Return With Smashing Win; Liverpool Survives Scare To Defeat Cherries; Arsenal Edges Manchester United; Spurs Spoil Burnley Return; Manchester City Tames Wolves; Chelsea Stymied At Home; Nottingham Forest Swats The Bees; Aston Villa And Newcastle In Punchless, Goalless Slog

Sunderland returned from its lengthy Premier League absence to delight supporters at the Stadium of Light with a commanding 3-0 win over West Ham. After eight years away from topflight football, the Black Cats teased that they may stay awhile. Sunderland scored three times in the second half to break open a tightly contested match and secure the first topflight August win for the Black Cats since 2010. Sunderland’s impressive showing  contrasted with that of Burnley which performed more like the “one and done” promoted sides of recent Premier League seasons.

Tottenham Hotspur swept past the Clarets 3-0 as Richarlison scored twice to give Manager Thomas Frank a victory in his first Premier League match for the club. Burnley looked very much like the yo-yo club that has either been promoted or relegated in each of the last four seasons.

Leeds, also newly promoted, was more competitive than the Clarets and came away with all three points at Elland Road, defeating Everton 1-0  on an 84th minute penalty kick. Lucas Nmecha converted the try for the Whites that resulted from a handball in the penalty area by Everton’s James Tarkowski. A tame Everton attack managed just one shot on target for the match. The hope for all three promoted sides is the clear weakness of some of the returning Premier League sides.

Brentford said goodbye to the highly regarded Thomas Frank and replaced him with a huge question mark. Keith Andrews had never been a first team manager before his debut in charge of the Bees on Sunday. Andrews served as set-piece coach under Frank, and it was ironically off a corner kick that Nottingham Forest scored in the fifth minute of a 3-1 victory over the Bees. Chris Wood scored the opener and would score a second goal as the Tricky Trees took a commanding three-goal advantage by halftime. Brentford’s untested new manager may not get a fair chance this season due to  transfer departures. The move of last season’s leading scorer, Bryan Mbeumo, to Manchester United is a major blow which will be compounded should fellow forward Yoane Wissa, scorer of 19 Premier League goals for the Bees last season, leave as well. Wissa was held out of the Bees’ opening match amid transfer speculation.

Chris Wood scored 20 Premier League goals last season, finishing as the league's fourth-highest scorer 😮

Straight back to business 🤷 pic.twitter.com/rOB94v7NdK

— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) August 17, 2025

Unlike Andrews, Wolverhampton Manager Vitor Periera had a wealth of experience as a manager in far flung leagues in Europe, Brazil, China and Saudi Arabia before taking his first Premier League head job in December of last year. Wolves were in the relegation zone when ownership pulled the emergency cord and brought in Periera to replace Gary O’Neil. It proved the right move as Wolves finished a comfortable 12 points above the drop line. This off season has not been kind, however, for the Black Country squad. Departures of key players such as Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri Lead raise the specter of a potential relegation fight. A 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Manchester City on Saturday had Periera emphasizing the need for new signings after the match. Manchester City, meanwhile, is already getting contributions from some of its new team members. Tijjani Reijnders notched a goal and an assist in his Premier League debut while new signing Rayan Cherki scored the Citizens’ fourth goal of the match versus Wolves. Returning stalwart Erling Haaland scored two of the Manchester City goals as he looks to recapture his crown as the league’s premier goal scorer. Haaland was third in the Golden Boot chase last season to top scorer Mohamed Salah and runner-up Alexander Isak. Haaland and Salah have each topped the league twice in the last four seasons, Salah jointly claiming a Golden Boot with Son Heung-min in 2021/22 before Haaland finished on top the next two seasons.

Salah notched his first goal of this campaign in a 4-2 Liverpool win over Bournemouth on Friday. The spotlight for the Reds, however, was on newly acquired striker Hugo Ekitike and the Frenchman delivered. Ekitike scored Liverpool’s opening goal of the season and assisted Cody Gakpo’s goal which gave Liverpool an initial 2-0 advantage at Anfield. Then things got interesting when Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo scored two goals in 11 minutes of the second half to knot things up. Substitute Federico Chiesa calmed the anxiety of the Anfield crowd with his 88th minute goal to regain the lead for Liverpool and Salah closed things out with his stoppage time goal.

Newcastle, meanwhile, clearly misses wantaway striker Isak who continues to demand a transfer to Liverpool and is currently training apart from his Magpie teammates. Manager Eddie Howe watched his Newcastle side fail to convert on Saturday even after Aston Villa went down to 10 men in the 66th minute of a goalless draw. Fortunately for Newcastle, Aston Villa were also toothless in attack as evidenced by the failure of Unai Emery’s men to launch a single shot in the first half of play. No Premier League home side had failed to attempt a first half shot in more than a year. Both Newcastle and Aston Villa would seem to need better options in attack before this window closes. For Newcastle, that could mean a reconciliation with the unhappy Isak.

Arsenal hoped to have solved its striker problem when the Gunners signed Sporting CP ace Viktor Goykeres this summer. That looks to still be a work in process after the Swedish striker did not attempt a shot, created no chances and made only four passes in 60 minutes before being substituted out in Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford. Arsenal still took the three points on a first half header by left back Ricardo Caliafore, gifted by accommodating Manchester United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir who weakly pushed the ball to Caliafore when deflecting an Arsenal corner. Manchester United suffered its 15th  league defeat in Manager Ruben Amorim’s 28 matches in charge. Sunday’s loss came even as Amorim’s squad looked much improved and outplayed Arsenal for much of the game.

Like Arsenal, Chelsea did not see much return from recent investment in the striker position on Sunday. New additions Joao Pedro and then substitute Liam Delap had little impact up top in the Blues’ goalless draw with Crystal Palace. Chelsea had just three shots on target for the match and were fortunate that a first half goal by Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze on a free kick was chalked off. Eze’s goal was disallowed for the positioning of teammate Marc Guehi relative to the Chelsea wall under an obscure, seldom enforced rule. Both Eze and Guehi could have played their last match for the Eagles as both are expected to move on during the current transfer window. Those departures could seriously damage the trajectory of a Palace side which is now unbeaten in its last ten matches, a run which includes winning both the FA Cup and Community Shield. Crystal Palace will be playing in Europe this season, albeit in the Conference League after an ownership glitch deprived them of an earned Europa League berth.

Brighton and Fulham, meanwhile, are two mid-table clubs which would like to emulate Crystal Palace’s recent success. The two clubs played to a 1-1 draw at Brighton on Saturday when Fulham “super sub” Rodrigo Munoz stunned the Seagulls with a 96th minute equalizer. Munoz leads the Premier League with seven goals as a substitute since the beginning of last season.