Sunderland and Liverpool showed the virtue of just chucking in a load of debutants on the opening weekend, while a couple of clubs had no new faces at all.
Here we’re counting club league debutants for each side – so those who have played for other Premier League clubs or turned out for their new sides in other competitions since arriving are included – but those who have previously played for their clubs in the Championship or on loan aren’t included.
0 – Fulham and Crystal Palace
Hardly surprising, since they have all of three new signings between them, two of which are second-choice goalkeepers.
Palace new boy Borna Sosa did make the bench for Palace for their trip to Chelsea, but.
1 – Aston Villa, Brighton, Everton (+ 2 subs), Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham (+1 sub), Wolves (+2 subs)
Villa keeper Marco Bizot kept a clean sheet against a Newcastle side that featured Anthony Elanga in the starting line-up.
Elanga’s replacement at Nottingham Forest, Dan Ndoye, was meanwhile thrown straight in against Brentford and headed home their second goal in an all-round superb performance from Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
Brighton left-back Maxim de Cuyper was robbed of those four sweet FPL clean sheet bonus points thanks to Fulham’s late equaliser, and David Moller Wolfe will have easier days for Wolves than he did in their four-goal defeat to Manchester City. Fer Lopez and Jhon Arias both appeared from the bench for Vitor Pereira’s side.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was unable to inspire Everton against Leeds, nor were subs Jack Grealish or Thierno Barry.
But the pick of the line debutants was Mohammed Kudus, who made an immediate impression at Spurs by claiming two assists in their 3-0 win over Burnley. He was joined on the pitch briefly by late sub Joao Palhinha.
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2 – Arsenal (+1 sub), Chelsea (+2 subs), Manchester United (+1 sub), West Ham (+1 sub)
Both Mikel Arteta and Ruben Amorim had a pair of new arrivals in their starting line-ups: Viktor Gyokeres and Martin Zubimendi for Arsenal, Mattheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo for Manchester United. Noni Madueke and Benjamin Sesko joined the fray for their respective sides later on. We have 16 Conclusions if you’d like.
Joao Pedro and Jamie Gittens both made their Premier League debuts from the start for Enzo Maresca’s side against Palace, with Liam Delap and Estevao replacing them in the second half, but none of them did anything to stop the game finishing goalless. (Andrey Santos also made his Premier League debut from the bench after signing in 2023 but spending the past couple of years out on loan…but we’re talking about new signings here, so we’re not going to count him.)
Fat lot of good El Hadji Malick Diouf, Mads Hermansen, and late sub Callum Wilson for for West Ham against Sunderland, either. Eesh.
3 – Bournemouth, Brentford (+1 sub), Burnley (+4 subs), Leeds (+2 subs), Manchester City (+1 sub)
Pep Guardiola answered the question of whether James Trafford was brought back to replace Ederson or play second fiddle by throwing him straight in alongside Rayan Ait-Nouri and the excellent Tijjani Reijnders, with Rayan Cherki coming off the bench to score a hugely impressive City’s fourth against Wolves.
Bournemouth’s new-look back line included goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic behind defenders Bafode Diakite and Adrien Truffert, who put up a respectable fight against Liverpool before falling to a late defeat
Burnley have brought in 10 new faces so far summer and fielded seven of them against Tottenham, albeit the marginal majority came off the bench.
Brentford handed immediate starts to Caoimhin Kelleher, Michael Kayode and Antoni Milambo, with some lad called Jordan Henderson coming off the bench, but it was Brentford’s departures that were more keenly felt as they fell to a comprehensive 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Leeds had lift-off against Everton thanks to free agent Lukas Nmecha, who Daniel Farke said had “paid everything back – but we didn’t pay for him!”.
The Whites also started Lucas Perri in net, Gabriel Gudmundsson at left-back and large man Anton Stach in midfield, with large man Sean Longstaff taking to the pitch as a sub.
4 – Liverpool
Arne Slot put all four of his high-profile signings straight into the side to face Bournemouth, but none of Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, Florian Wirtz or Hugo Ekitike completed the 90 minutes – despite Ekitike making it two goals from two following his strike in the Community Shield last weekend.
7 – Sunderland (+1 sub)
Didn’t exactly need time to gel, did they?
Robin Roefs, Reinildo Mandaya, Habib Diarra, Noah Sadiki, skipper Granit Xhaka, Simon Adingra and Chemsdine Taibi were all chucked in and delivered the goods in Sunderland’s 3-0 win over West Ham United, with Omar Alderete coming off the bench to set up Sunderland’s final goal.
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