Frank records biggest opening league win for 40 years

Saturday’s fine victory over Burnley was our biggest win in a new manager’s first league game in charge for almost 40 years.

Thomas Frank was in the Head Coach role for his first Premier League fixture since his appointment in June as the Clarets visited N17 on the opening day of the new campaign and guided us to a 3-0 win thanks to a superb brace from Richarlison and a strike from Brennan Johnson.

We have to go back to the first day of the 1986/87 campaign before we find a new manager who was able to match that – David Pleat’s first game in charge following his arrival from Luton Town also ending in a 3-0 win as Clive Allen struck a hat-trick against Aston Villa at Villa Park on 23 August 1986.

Of the 21 managers/head coaches we’ve had from Pleat to Frank, 10 have led us to victory in their first league game – for clarification, this doesn’t include caretaker or interim managers.

Following Pleaty’s opening day success, Peter Shreeves was next to win his first league game when we defeated Southampton 3-2 at The Dell on 17 August 1991, Gary Lineker (2) and Gordon Durie on target.

Two years later, Teddy Sheringham scored the only goal of the game at St James’ Park as Ossie Ardiles led us to victory against Newcastle United, while Christian Gross got his reign off to a great start as we travelled to Everton and won 2-0, Ramon Vega and David Ginola netting in November 1997.

A home game against Bradford City marked the start of Glenn Hoddle’s league campaign as manager in April 2001, in which Steffen Ifversen and Simon Davies scored in a 2-1 triumph, however we have to jump all the way to 2013 for the next win on the list. That was from Tim Sherwood, who oversaw a 3-2 success against Southampton at St Mary’s in December that year, Emmanuel Adebayor scoring a brace and Jos Hooiveld with an own goal.

A last-gasp Eric Dier goal gave us a dramatic 1-0 win at West Ham United to kickstart the Spurs career of Mauricio Pochettino in August 2014, and the Hammers were also the first opponents for Jose Mourinho in November 2019, goals from Heung-Min Son, Lucas Moura and Harry Kane giving us a 3-2 win at the London Stadium.

Highlights | West Ham 2-3 Spurs | November, 2019

The last Head Coach to win his first league game before Saturday was Nuno Espirito Santo, who made the dream start with a 1-0 win over Manchester City in N17 thanks to the only goal of the game from Son.

Of course, nothing will ever top the great Bill Nicholson’s first league game in charge of us. Only appointed manager on the morning of Everton’s visit to White Hart Lane on 11 October 1958, Bill led us to an incredible 10-4 victory over the Toffees with Bobby Smith netting four times!

Here’s a list of the first league games in charge for our full-time managers/head coaches since David Pleat in 1986…

David Pleat

23.08.86 v Aston Villa (A), won 3-0 (C Allen 3)

Terry Venables

28.11.87 v Liverpool (H), lost 0-2

Peter Shreeves

17.08.91 v Southampton (A), won 3-2 (Lineker 2, Durie)

Doug Livermore

15.08.92 v Southampton (A), drew 0-0

Ossie Ardiles

14.08.93 v Newcastle Utd (A), won 1-0 (Sheringham)

Gerry Francis

19.11.94 v Aston Villa (H), lost 3-4 (Sheringham, Klinsmann, Bosnich (og))

Christian Gross

29.11.97 v Everton (A), won 2-0 (Vega, Ginola)

George Graham

19.10.98 v Leicester City (A), lost 1-2 (Ferdinand)

Glenn Hoddle

10.04.01 v Bradford City (H), won 2-1 (Iversen, Davies)

Jacques Santini

14.08.04 v Liverpool (H), drew 1-1 (Defoe)

Martin Jol

13.11.04 v Arsenal (H), lost 4-5 (Naybet, Defoe, King, Kanoute)

Juande Ramos

03.11.07 v Middlesbrough (A), drew 1-1 (Bent)

Harry Redknapp

29.10.08 v Arsenal (A), drew 4-4 (Bentley, Bent, Jenas, Lennon)

Andre Villas-Boas

18.08.12 v Newcastle United (A), lost 1-2 (Defoe)

Tim Sherwood

22.12.13 v Southampton (A), won 3-2 (Adebayor (2), Hooiveld og)

Mauricio Pochettino
16.08.14 v West Ham United (A), won 1-0 (Dier)

Jose Mourinho

23.11.19 v West Ham United (A), won 3-2 (Son, Lucas, Kane)

Nuno Espirito Santo

15.08.21 v Manchester City (H), won 1-0 (Son)

Antonio Conte

07.11.21 v Everton (A), drew 0-0

Ange Postecoglou

13.08.23 v Brentford (A), drew 2-2 (Romero, Royal)

Thomas Frank

16.08.25 v Burnley (H), won 3-0 (Richarlison 2, Johnson)