The former Tottenham and Hamburg manager, who had previous spells with Roda JC and RKC Waalwijk in his native Holland, joined Ajax this summer and is looking to restore the Amsterdam club to the top of the Dutch game.

Ajax last won the league title in 2004 and finished third last season, however goals from Miralem Sulejmani, in the 41st minute, and Dennis Rommedahl, after 71 minutes, gave them a decent start to this campaign.

Fellow heavyweights Feyenoord also started on a winning note, defeating NEC Nijmegen with goals from Jon Dahl Tomasson and Leroy Fer, and new home coach Mario Been getting one over on his old side.

PSV Eindhoven led 2-0 and 3-2 but had to settle for a 3-3 draw against newly-promoted VVV-Venlo.

Nordin Amrabat and Ola Toivonen put PSV 2-0 ahead at half-time, but Achmed Ahahaoui and Keisuke Honda hauled VVV back level by the hour mark.

Toivonen restored PSV's lead with eight minutes remaining, but an equaliser three minutes later from Ruben Schaken secured an impressive result for the visitors.

NAC Breda launched their season with a 2-1 victory away to ADO Den Haag, courtesy of goals from Anthony Lurling and Matthew Amoah, with Csaba Horvath grabbing a late consolation.