Paul Pogba leads Manchester United to a 2-1 winning start in Premier League

Paul Pogba assumed the responsibility of captain handed to him by Jose Mourinho to help Manchester United get off to a winning start in the Premier League with a 21 win over Leicester CityLess than a month since Pogba scored in the World Cup final to help France lift the trophy he was thrown straight into action by Mourinho despite just returning to preseason training this weekPogbas thirdminute spotkick settled the hosts nerves as United allayed some of the doom and gloom predicted by Mourinho after failing to land a series of targets before Thursdays transfer deadlineLuke Shaw sealed the points seven minutes from time before Jamie Vardy headed home a consolation for the visitors After a week in which Pogba has been linked with a move away from Old Trafford with Barcelonas interest piqued by the Frenchmans frosty relationship with Mourinho after he was repeatedly dropped last season the Portuguese showed his faith in the midfielder by surprisingly handing him the armbandMourinho has consistently complained in recent weeks over his lack of backing from the United board and also had a host of injuries and players lacking match sharpness after the World Cup to contend withUnited added only Brazilian midfielder Fred teenage fullback Diogo Dalot and thirdchoice goalkeeper Lee Grant to the squad that finished 19 points adrift of champions Manchester City last seasonBut the hosts got a muchneeded lift after just two minutes when Daniel Amartey was harshly adjudged by referee Andre Mariner to have handled Alexis Sanchezs shot Pogba resisted the pleas of Sanchez to take the spotkick and after a prolonged stuttering run up dispatched his shot into the top corner giving Kasper Schmeichel no chance to repeat his penalty saving heroics at the World Cup for DenmarkUnited failed to build on that positive start though as Leicester went onto enjoy the better of the firsthalf with 20 million signing James Maddison impressing on debut Mourinho was particularly annoyed to miss out on a series of centreback targets including Leicesters Harry Maguire who shone for England in RussiaHowever he can still rely on one of the worlds best goalkeepers as David de Gea put his poor World Cup showing behind him with a fine save to prevent Maddison levelling Fred had a debut to forget before being replaced 15 minutes from time and was lucky to even last that long when Mariner looked leniently on a kick out at Demarai Gray before halftimeBoth sides top scorers from last season Romelu Lukaku and Vardy started on the bench after their World Cup exertions and were introduced for the final quarter Vardy nearly made a vital contribution as provider when he outmuscled Shaw and picked out Gray in the middle who was denied by another fine save by De Gea Lukaku then passed up a golden chance when Schmeichel spread himself well to turn the Belgians effort over the bar Shaw who himself has suffered plenty of criticism from Mourinho in the past two seasons appeared to make the game safe when he fired low into the far corner to spark wild celebrations from his managerHowever Vardy pulled a goal back deep into stoppage time when he stooped to head in after Ricardo Pereiras cross came back off the post and United were forced to see out a nervy final few minutes to get off to a winning startCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever