Five... first days to remember

The Premier League celebrates 30 years soon - the first fixtures of football's new era were over the weekend of 15/16 August, 1992 - with our 31st season kicking-off against Southampton at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.

So far, 21 of our 30 opening-day fixtures have been away, and after being unbeaten in the first five opening weekends, 1992/93 to 1996/97, we only won five of our next 20. Thankfully, things have picked up in recent seasons, and we've won four of our last five season openers, including that memorable victory over champions Manchester City this time last year.

Here are five opening days to remember since the start of the Premier League back in 1992 - not including our first Premier League fixture, a 0-0 draw at Southampton!

20.08.1995 - Sheffield Wednesday 3-4 Spurs

Arguably the most memorable of our opening days in the Premier League era - so far. Excitement was at fever pitch following the arrival of Jurgen Klinsmann, one of the best strikers in Europe and a real coup for the Club in the summer of 1994. Given a hero's welcome, Jurgen delivered, and his place in Spurs' folklore was cemented on his debut. Teddy Sheringham and Darren Anderton put us 2-0 up by the break but the Owls rallied to level at the start of the second half. Nick Barmby's sweet strike put us 3-2 up and then Klinsmann's moment, rising to head home Anderton's cross for 4-2 before providing one of the Premier League's iconic celebrations, the famous 'dive', pre-planned with Teddy, with all team-mates joining in. We won 4-3, and Jurgen repeated the celebration after scoring a spectacular scissor-kick against Everton in his second game days later.

16.08.2010 - Spurs 2-1 Liverpool

We won the League Cup in 2008, but were struggling in the 2008/09 season when Harry Redknapp took over. Harry lifted the team from two points in eight games to a respectable eighth place that season, and hopes were high for 2009/10. What an opening game though against Liverpool, who had chased United for the title in the previous campaign, racking up 86 points to United's 90. We know now how this season ended, with that memorable Peter Crouch winner at City in May, 2010, taking us into fourth and Champions League qualification for the first time, our highest finish in 20 seasons, including the first 18 of the Premier League. It all started on this sunny day at the Lane, with Benoit Assou-Ekotto's screamer in the first half and a debut goal from Sebastien Bassong to secure the win after Steven Gerrard had levelled from the penalty spot.

16.08.14 - West Ham 0-1 Spurs

The first match of the Mauricio Pochettino era, Eric Dier's match-winning debut, a certain Harry Kane off the bench to provide the assist - key moments early in the careers of players who have become modern day legends at Spurs. It didn't look like being a day to remember across east London early on though, as Kyle Naughton was sent off on 29 minutes, forcing Eric to shift from centre-back to right-back. In a typical West Ham-Spurs blood and thunder derby, the Hammers were also reduced to 10 men just after hour, James Collins for two yellows, and we took the initiative. Still, that doesn't explain quite how it was Eric breaking through the lines from right-back in added time, but he did, latched onto Harry's pass, skipped around Adrian and rolled home with his left foot. A moment neither he or the packed away end at Upton Park will ever forget.

10.08.19 - Spurs 3-1 Villa

Five years on from that win at West Ham, a new era had dawned. We moved into our world-class new stadium in April, 2019 and, having reached the Champions League Final at the end of that season, all eyes were on our first-ever opening day at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But Villa were there to spoil the party, just like they almost did back in 2007, when they went 4-1 up in our 125 game at the Lane, only for us to come back and draw 4-4. This time around, John McGinn opened the scoring on nine minutes and we had to wait until the 73rd for Tanguy Ndombele to rifle home the equaliser on his debut. The crowd saw us home from there, willing in a late double from Harry Kane (86 and 90) to secure the points.

15.08.22 - Spurs 1-0 City

City arrived in N17 as champions this time last year, their nearest challengers in 2020/21, United, 12 points adrift. We were without Harry Kane, and summer arrival Cristian Romero was only fit enough for a place on the bench. Kevin de Bruyne was on the bench for City, who handed a debut to summer signing Jack Grealish. As it turned out, Japhet Tanganga produced one of his best matches to keep Grealish and Raheem Sterling, who kept drifting to Japhet's side, quiet. So then it was all set up for Heung-Min Son, City's nemesis, to curl home a delicious winner on 55 minutes, his sixth goal against Pep Guardiola's men in all competitions.