Sunderland are back in the Premier League – and back with a bang – after beating West Ham 3-0 at the Stadium of Light.
The last two seasons have seen newly-promoted clubs miserably sink straight back down, but the play-off winners made a statement of intent with a big win. Could things be different this year?
After Sunderland’s big win, we’ve revisited five more statement-making performances from newly-promoted teams.
Bolton 5-0 Leicester (2001)
Big Sam heritage.
“When we went up everyone was talking about the other two teams,” classic Barclaysman Kevin Nolan recalled in an interview with The Bolton News.
“You’d got Blackburn Rovers who had David Dunn and Damien Duff, these exciting young players who were going to be Premier League stars, and then there was Fulham who had spent all that money on players like Edwin van der Sar, had Jean Tigana in charge and Louis Saha scoring goals. People were like ‘and then there’s Bolton Wanderers’ but it suited us.
“We knew there had never been a season where all three sides had stayed up and, being honest, I think the other two looked like they could do it comfortably. We knew we’d have our work cut out but it was never about the individual players at Bolton. People might not have been able to list off the team that came up but we were together, it was a real team.
“Sam liked to set targets and he sat us down and looked at the first 10 games, told us we needed 15 points then our chances of staying up would increase by ‘X per cent’ and he’d break it down like that.
“It was exact. We weren’t there to mess around or have a nice year going around the big clubs and then back down again. We wanted the job done.”
Bolton went on to win their opening three games, including a victory over Liverpool, and topped the table going into September.
Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham (2007)
Roy Keane led Sunderland back to the Premier League in style as they topped the Championship table in 2006-07, but their first match back in the top flight was a pretty forgettable snoozefest…
…at least until Michael Chopra blew the roof off the Stadium of Light, making time stand still for the 44,000 spectators as he took a touch before slotting home the match-winner in injury time.
The Black Cats won just one of their following 13 Premier League outings, but the board kept patience with Keane and were vindicated when the Irishman turned the ship around, steering them to 15th in the end.
Hull 2-1 Leicester (2016)
Looking back, the Tigers’ opening-day victory over the reigning champions probably said more about the hosts than the visitors.
Claudio Ranieri wouldn’t see out the season as Leicester looked genuinely in danger of going down – with Hull battling to stay up at their expense.
Andy King featured at the base of Ranieri’s midfield that day, an instant stark reminder of how irreplaceable N’Golo Kante would prove.
Goals from Adama Diomande and Robert Snodgrass gave Mike Phelan’s men a 2-1 victory following protests against the controversial owner against owner Assam Allam.
Curtis Davies produced a man-of-the-match display in Harry Maguire’s absence. Future two-time Premier League winner Andy Robertson also featured in the backline, while a teenage Jarrod Bowen was an unused substitute.
Hull beat Swansea the following weekend, too, but ended up going down in 18th, six points adrift.
Liverpool 4-3 Leeds United (2020)
It was a shame that there were no spectators in Anfield to witness a minor Premier League classic.
Leeds travelled away to the Premier League champions after a 16-year exile from the Premier League, with everyone who watched them in the Championship raving about the fearless football they were playing under Marcelo Bielsa.
And they immediately lived up to the hype for the more mainstream audience, playing their part in a seven-goal thriller on Merseyside.
“Leeds are special,” responded Jurgen Klopp.
“The way they play, it is just uncomfortable. If you don’t respect the opponent they will kill you but I really liked the attitude of my team today. We are still a fighting unit. They just don’t stop.”
Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford and Mateusz Klich got on the scoresheet but Leeds ended up empty-handed after Mohamed Salah notched a hat-trick.
Even before signing star man Raphinha, the nature of their display at Anfield suggested they’d be just fine – and they were, ending up ninth that season.
Brentford 2-0 Arsenal (2021)
“New season, same old story,” remarked Jamie Carragher from the Sky Sports’ commentary box as Arsenal got the 2021-22 campaign underway with a shock 2-0 defeat away to newly-promoted Brentford, with the Bees’ new ground absolutely bouncing.
New Gunners signing Ben White looked weak and Arsenal fallible at set-pieces.
“We were not good enough to beat them,” admitted Mikel Arteta.
“We did not do the basics. We have started in a disappointing way but we will review and speak with cool heads and try to put it right as soon as possible.”
Brentford stayed up relatively comfortably that season and have been a Premier League mainstay ever since.
Arsenal, meanwhile, made big strides under Arteta that year but just missed out on Champions League qualification at the expense of North London rivals Tottenham.
Arteta’s side have since gone unbeaten (five wins, two draws) against Brentford in the Premier League.
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