Ahead of Igor Tudor’s first game in charge of Tottenham and after Vítor Pereira’s triumphant start at Forest, we’ve ranked the first impressions offered by all the Premier League managers…
It’s a Big Weekend for Tudor as he leads Spurs into a massive north London derby against wobbling Arsenal.
Doubtless he would be delighted to enjoy similar early success as Unai Emery or Fabian Hurzeler. But we suspect that come Sunday night, he’ll just be happy to be higher in the ranking than this guy…
19) Keith Andrews – Nottingham Forest 3-1 Brentford
As first impressions go, Andrews’ was a shocker. In his first game as a head coach, Brentford were 3-0 down at half-time on the opening weekend of the season after Forest ran all over them, prompting much smugness amongst those of us who pinned Andrews’ side as relegation fodder.
There’s a chance we may have been wrong.
18) Rob Edwards – Wolves 0-2 Crystal Palace
Few could hold defeat in his opening game against Edwards, so poor were the team he took over. Second-half goals from Daniel Munoz and Yeremy Pino took Palace fourth and left Wolves bottom and winless in 12. It took eight more games for Edwards to taste victory when Wolves met one of the sides seemingly as f***ed as they were.
17) David Moyes – Everton 0-1 Aston Villa
No new returning manager bounce for Everton – not immediately – with Moyes seeing his side sunk by Ollie Watkins five days after he replaced Sean Dyche. After one win in 12, sat in 16th place, it was a sobering illustration of the task at hand.
But Moyes then turned Everton around, winning four of their next five and avoiding defeat in their next nine.
16) Mikel Arteta – Bournemouth 1-1 Arsenal
“I am not happy we have not won the game but happy overall. In terms of attitude, desire and commitment it was better than I expected,” said Arteta after his first match as a head coach in any capacity, when he could not give away shares of trust in his process.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equalised after Dan Gosling’s opener to give Arteta a point against Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth. That sentence makes no sense in big 2026. Thierry Henry was not impressed.
15) Marco Silva – Fulham 1-1 Middlesbrough
On humble beginnings this Fulham revolution has been built. The Cottagers had been relegated but managed to improve on their managerial situation, with Scott Parker leaving by mutual consent en route to Bournemouth as Silva took up his first post since leaving Everton about 18 months before.
It was an undoubted coup, just not one made immediately obvious by a draw with Neil Warnock’s Middlesbrough. Harry Wilson scored a delightful goal from outside the area because obviously.
14) Daniel Farke – Leeds United 2-2 Cardiff
Farke’s first Leeds side on the opening day of the Championship season in 2023/24 featured only three players who played in the last Premier League game in May.
And though a home draw with Cardiff sounds underwhelming, it could have been worse, with the hosts 2-0 down at half time. Crysencio Summerville’s added-time equaliser made a draw feel like a victory.
13) Andoni Iraola – Bournemouth 1-1 West Ham
After a summer of bleating about how harshly Gary O’Neil had been treated by nasty Bournemouth, the time had come for the Cherries to show their working out. A draw with West Ham was respectable enough without coming close to confounding the critics.
Solanke equalised after Jarrod Bowen’s opener, meaning that West Ham had conceded decisive goals scored by summer transfer targets in the first game of consecutive Premier League seasons. Which feels particularly on brand.
12) Nuno – Everton 1-1 West Ham
Nuno replaced Graham Potter on the Saturday before a creditable draw at Everton on the Monday. The new manager made a point of acknoeldging the away support: “It’s our priority to become closer with our fans and bridge the gap, and to deliver so they appreciate the work of the team.”
That warm sentiment didn’t last long.
11) Pep Guardiola – Manchester City 2-1 Sunderland
A victory, but for once that wasn’t really all that mattered. After months of forewarning that Our League would not simply bend to his will and Guardiola would be found out against the sort of proper competition neither La Liga nor the Bundesliga could provide, this was a thoroughly underwhelming start.
The hosts needed an 87th-minute Paddy McNair own goal after an early Sergio Aguero penalty to prevail against a Sunderland side which would be relegated come what May, with the unceremonious axing of Joe Hart from the starting line-up a major point of early contention.
10) Regis Le Bris – Cardiff 0-2 Sunderland
Le Bris was appointed in the summer of 2024 and whatever scepticism there may have been of the Frenchman on Wearside soon dissipated when an away win at Cardiff, thanks to goals from Luke O’Nien and Jack Clarke, formed the first of four successive wins to kick off the Championship season.
Le Bris’ team featured only two names – Trai Hume and Eliezer Mayenda – who started the opening day of the following season in the Premier League.
9) Eddie Howe – Newcastle 3-3 Brentford
A high-scoring draw in which Newcastle led but needed two equalisers to salvage a point despite having more than twice as many shots, leaving them bottom of the Premier League in late November, confirmed for many the suspicion that this would be a rehash of his exciting but defensively-flawed Bournemouth reign.
Joelinton scored in a neat indicator of his prosperous future under Howe, who was actually confined to a hotel room with the ‘rona and so happily handed over the reins to a bashful and reluctant Jason Tindall. If Newcastle’s manager would prefer we can instead assess his first game in the dugout: a 2-0 loss to Arsenal the following week.
8) Arne Slot – Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool
Ipswich provided a first taste of English football for Slot, who would have known that while anything but a win against their promoted hosts would have been a disaster, no standard of victory could possibly have dispelled those festering post-Klopp concerns.
As it was, Slot pretty much nailed it with that ruthless but ultimately vindicated half-time sacrifice of Jarell Quansah, after which Diogo Jota and Mo Salah scored to mark a humble start to the brave new era.
MORE: Premier League manager rankings: where do Amorim and Maresca land in list of all 28(!) managers?
7) Liam Rosenior – Charlton 1-5 Chelsea
Rosenior swerved a west London derby at Fulham immediately after his arrival – a smart move – to first take charge of Chelsea for the first time in an FA Cup third-round win at Championship strugglers Charlton.
“It’s a good start. It’s just the start and we have to stay consistent now in a very, very hectic schedule.” So, of course, they lost his first home game: a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final.
6) Scott Parker – Luton 1-4 Burnley
Having replaced Vincent Kompany in the summer, Parker took Burnley to Luton on the opening weekend of the 2024-25 season in a battle of two sides just relegated from the Premier League.
The Clarets won convincingly, setting the tone for both clubs. Parker took Burnley back up; Luton’s slide continued all the way to League One.
5) Oliver Glasner – Crystal Palace 3-0 Burnley
The uncertainty of their second post-Hodgson years soon gave way to an unfamiliar sense of exhilaration as a Palace side which rarely scored at all netted thrice in the second half in front of a disbelieving Selhurst Park.
Jean-Philippe Mateta opened his personal Glasner account and there was ample room for a first Premier League clean sheet in four months. The streets shan’t forget February to May 2024, when Crystal Palace were the greatest team in Europe.
4) Unai Emery – Aston Villa 3-1 Manchester United
“I am so happy… it was a special day today,” said the new Villa boss after taking charge for the first time, when they made United look very much second-best. Villa fans almost universally welcomed Emery’s appointment after a year of Steven Gerrard and the players buzzed off it too, racing into a two-goal lead inside 11 minutes. Even when United pulled one back courtesy of a lucky deflection, Villa still kept their visitors at arm’s length and ran out comfortable winners. Not that anyone could have predicted where Emery might take Villa.
3) Fabian Hurzeler – Everton 0-3 Brighton
The youngest manager in Premier League history made an early mockery of sneering suggestions that Brighton were being too clever for their own good when picking their successor to Roberto De Zerbi.
Brighton invested £200m to make Hurzeler’s transition as smooth as possible and it showed: five different players scored or assisted in a thorough dismantling of a decent Premier League side.
2) Vitor Pereira – Fenerbahce 0-3 Nottingham Forest
Although Pereira was brought in by his pal (for now) Evangelos Marinakis to keep Forest in the Premier League, overseeing their biggest-ever away win in Europe represented a perfect start for the Portuguese. Forest’s players evidently responded to Pereira’s plea to ‘express themselves’ after a few months of Dycheball. Dyche, though, enjoyed a similar start, beating Porto 2-0 in the Europa League in his first game. Fat lot of good that it did him…
1) Michael Carrick – Manchester United 2-0 Manchester City
Carrick was merely a caretaker when he oversaw two Premier League games in 2021. Now he’s an interim. His next promotion will allow him to use the same car park Sir Alex used to. Not in the same sacred spot, obviously.
Anyway, his first game of this interim spell appeared a hiding to nothing. United were their customary mess in the wake of Ruben Amorim’s doomed attempt to force his formation on a squad not suited to it and coming to Old Trafford were the noisy neighbours. But Carrick, maverick that he is, tried using United’s undoubtedly talented players in a shape befitting their qualities. The result: one of the best United performances in years and and an oh-so-sweet derby victory.
