AZ Alkmaar suffered a disastrous opening to the defence of their Eredivisie title, losing 3–2 at Heracles – who finished 15th last season – and having two players dismissed.
AZ, led by Ronald Koeman in place of the departed Louis van Gaal, were expected to start well, having crushed Heerenveen 5–1 in the Dutch Super Cup last weekend. However, the champions found themselves 3–0 down just past the hour, after goals from Everton Ramos da Silva, Willie Overtoom and Mark-Jan Fledderus.
Two goals in two minutes, from Graziano Pelle and last season's top scorer, Mounir El Hamdaoui, gave AZ hope with ten minutes to go – only for the substitutes Gill Swerts and Pelle to receive red cards.
Last year's runners-up, Steve McClaren's FC Twente, won 2–0 at Sparta Rotterdam. Blaise Nkufo opened the scoring after 18 minutes and Bryan Ruiz, a €5m summer signing from Gent, doubled the lead 12 minutes into the second half.
Martin Jol's Ajax reign got off to an auspicious start at FC Groningen, the visitors running out 2–0 winners on Sunday. Serbian international Miralem Sulejmani opened the scoring in the 41st minute, and Dennis Rommedahl secured all three points with 18 minutes to go after being put through by Luis Suarez.
Another manager beginning the season in charge of a new side was Feyenoord's Mario Been. Against his old club, NEC Nijmegen, Been was indebted to the veteran Dane Jon Dahl Tomasson, who opened the scoring after 10 minutes, and Leroy Fer, whose penalty made sure of a 2–0 win at De Kuip.
In Eindhoven, PSV and VVV-Venlo were involved in a 3–3 draw, with VVV – winners of last season's Dutch second division – coming back from 2–0 and then 3–2 behind to claim a point.
Goals for the home side from Nordin Amrabat and Ola Toivonen had given PSV a comfortable half-time advantage, only for Achmed Ahahaoui and Keisuke Honda to bring the scores level after 60 minutes. Toivenen's second with eight minutes to go looked to have sealed victory for PSV, but Ruben Schaken popped up in the 85th minute to ensure VVV didn't depart empty-handed.
The weekend's biggest win came at Willem II, where Christophe Gregoire and Said Boutahar gave the home side an early two-goal lead over Vitesse. Sinan Kaloglu pulled a goal back for the visitors moments after Gregoire was dismissed for a second bookable offence, but Ergan Swenkals added a third in the final minute to wrap up a 3–1 win.
Elsewhere, ADO Den Haag went down to a 2–1 defeat at home to NAC Breda, Csaba Horvath replying to goals in each half from Anthony Lurling and Matthew Amoah. For Utrecht, Ricky van Wolfswinkel's goal after three minutes was enough to see off newly promoted RKC Waalwijk, while on Friday, Heerenveen and Roda played out a 0–0 draw.
