Michael Carrick, Mikel Arteta and Andoni Iraola in their first games in charge.
Michael Carrick, Mikel Arteta and Andoni Iraola in their first games in charge.
Michael Carrick and Enzo Maresca bookend the ranking of every Premier League manager’s first game in charge, with more losing than winning while making their first impressions.
Nine managers have recently taken charge of their first matches with their new clubs, with only two tasting victory.
Here’s how we’ve ranked the current bosses based on their first competitive match at the helm…
20) Enzo Maresca – Arsenal 3-0 Manchester City
Doubtless Mikel Arteta is counting the Community Shield as a competitive game so we are too. Only it wasn’t as competitive as it should have been since Arsenal, alarmingly for Maresca, dominated City. Had they not come from behind late on to win his first Premier League game in charge, Pep Guardiola’s replacement would be feeling the heat even more.
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) Roberto De Zerbi – Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur In case he needed it, Spurs offered a clear illustration of why they were in the relegation zone in a toothless defeat at Sunderland in which De Zerbi also lost his captain for the rest of the season. “I think we played a good game but not enough to win. We didn’t deserve to lose the game,” said the new boss. They did.
17) Alvaro Arbeloa – Fulham 2-3 Chelsea
Arbeloa saw his side concede inside 31 seconds of his first game in charge against local rivals before going toe-to-toe with Chelsea without ever really looking likely to emerge victorious. “It’s the first game of the season and I have been seeing all the games in the Premier League and you can feel that no one is ready,” he said after. Which always begs the question: why the f*** not?
16) Pierre Sage – Everton 2-0 Crystal Palace New manager, same old problems for Palace, who played some lovely football but failed to take any of their chances before letting in Everton at the back. It didn’t help that two of his best forwards weren’t available amid doubts over their future.
15) Oliver Glasner – Nottingham Forest 0-1 Leeds United
Forest would have been decent value for a point had they not conceded from an 88th-minute free-kick which made Glasner the fifth consecutive Forest boss to lose his first Premier League game in charge.
14) 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.
13) Marco Rose – Manchester City 2-1 Bournemouth Andoni Iraola’s replacement was six minutes away from beating City away in his first game in charge after a particularly impressive first-half display from his Cherries. Then Bournemouth forgot how to defend. Inexplicably they left Marc Guehi unmarked with a free-header from six yards, then allowed their massed ranks to be pierced by Rayan Cherki’s through-ball for Josko Gvardiol. It was something of a free hit for Rose, but capitulating so late was still a kick in the t*ts.
12) Frank Lampard Coventry 2-2 Cardiff
“Some good, some not so good in our performance,” said Lampard after his first Coventry game, coming after two training sessions in November 2024. The 16th-placed Sky Blues needed a late Victor Torp penalty to salvage a draw against the fourth-bottom Bluebirds.
11) Andoni Iraola – Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool Iraola would have happily taken a point at 2-1 down going into the 99th minute, but it was a draw that prompted more questions than answers for the new Liverpool boss. Like: WTF is that midfield? And, are Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz ever going to come good?
10) 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.
9) 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.
8) Sergej Jakirovic – Coventry 0-0 Hull
Jakirovic took over in the summer of 2025 a side that had just escaped relegation on goal difference. His first game was a goalless stalemate at the eventual Championship winners which he was happy to take: “It’s a very promising point for us.” Indeed it was.
7) Matthias Jaissle – Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool
Given such a traumatic summer, which he arrived in the thick of, and Liverpool’s record at Newcastle, Jaissle would have been happy with a point before kick-off. But going to within almost the last kick of three was a sickener for the new Toon boss. Even if there was plenty to be encouraged by.
6) 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.
MORE: Premier League sack race: Carrick catapulted into first as De Zerbi, Glasner and Emery rise too
5) Xabi Alonso – Fulham 2-3 Chelsea Winning a derby against an old colleague who replaced him at his previous job was a sweet, sweet feeling for Alonso, especially while watching Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro highlight why Chelsea will be fun to watch this season. Especially if their keeper keeps chucking goals in.
4) Gary O’Neil – Ipswich 2-1 Sunderland
A 90th-minute win in your first game back in the Premier League – for O’Neil and Ipswich – was about as good as it could have got for the manager and his Tractor Boys. “We deserved to win. It took the club a long time to win last time in the Premier League so to put one on the board is nice.”
3) 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.
2) 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.
1) Michael Carrick – Manchester United 2-0 Manchester CityCarrick’s first game of his semi-permanent 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.
Football365