Marcus Tavernier’s deflected strike, Dango Ouattara’s dream debut, and Josh Cullen’s captain’s performance lit up the Premier League weekend as Bournemouth, Brentford, and Burnley each picked up their first victories of the new campaign.
At the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth edged out Wolves 1-0. The decisive moment came early when Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s misplaced pass gifted Antoine Semenyo the ball on the edge of the area.
He found Tavernier, whose shot took a wicked deflection off Emmanuel Agbadou before clipping the underside of the bar and bouncing in.
The Cherries could have doubled their lead when Semenyo rattled the crossbar, while Wolves’ best chance saw Jorgen Strand Larsen denied by a sharp one-handed stop from Djordje Petrovic.
Any hopes of a comeback were dashed after the break when Toti Gomes was shown a straight red card for hauling down Evanilson as the last man.
Despite José Sá’s late heroics to keep out Tyler Adams, Bournemouth held firm to claim a deserved three points and leave Wolves staring at back-to-back defeats in the new Premier League season.
At the Gtech Community Stadium, Brentford fans witnessed a debut to remember from Burkina Faso international Dango Ouattara. Signed just a week ago for a club-record £42.5m from Bournemouth, the winger made an instant impact by scoring the only goal in a gritty 1-0 win over Aston Villa.
Ouattara showed quick instincts after Emiliano Martinez had parried his initial effort, calmly slotting home the rebound to seal victory in Keith Andrews’ first home league game as Brentford boss.
A stunning volley from Mikkel Damsgaard appeared to have doubled the lead before VAR ruled it out for a foul on Martinez, but the Bees held on with goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher delivering a commanding display.
Meanwhile at Turf Moor, Burnley bounced back from their opening-day defeat with a 2-0 triumph over Sunderland in a battle of newly-promoted sides.
After a tense first half where both teams carved out half-chances, captain Josh Cullen broke the deadlock just two minutes after the restart, curling a low effort into the corner following Jaidon Anthony’s clever flick.
Anthony then turned scorer late on, racing onto Cullen’s through ball, rounding the goalkeeper, and finishing coolly to put the result beyond doubt.
Sunderland pressed hard for an equaliser but failed to trouble Martin Dubravka before being undone by Burnley’s incisive counterattack.
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