Sunderland 1 - 3 Charlton Athletic

A DEBUT brace by Darren Bent sealed an impressive opening day win for Charlton at Sunderland on Saturday.

Charlton made a strong start and were rewarded after 11 minutes when two of their new signings combined to give them the lead.

Darren Ambrose did well to find Darren Bent in the penalty area and the striker composed himself before drilling a shot past Kelvin Davis.

But the home side were level after half an hour when Andy Gray was in the right place to force the ball home after Stephan Andersen had parried an initial effort by Dean Whitehead.

Ambrose was dismissed by referee Howard Webb after a bad foul on Sunderland full back Stephen Wright after 55 minutes.

But being a man down didn't seem to trouble the visitors too much and they regianed the lead through a superb Danny Murphy free kick 20 minutes into the second half.

Bent rounded off an excellent first Premiership appearance with a third late on.

Charlton: Andersen, Young, Perry, Hreidarsson, Powell, Murphy, Smertin (Hughes 88), Kishishev, Rommedahl (Thomas 58), Ambrose, Bent. Subs Not Used: Myhre, Fortune, Bartlett.

Other Premiership results:

Arsenal 2 - 0 Newcastle United
Aston Villa 2 - 2 Bolton Wanderers
Everton 0 - 2 Manchester United
Fulham 0 - 0 Birmingham City
Manchester City 0 - 0 West Bromwich Albion
Middlesbrough 0 - 0 Liverpool
Portsmouth 0 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United 3 - 1 Blackburn Rovers
Wigan Athletic 0 - 1 Chelsea