Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial Shine as Manchester United Cruise Past Stoke City

Manchester United climbed within 12 points of Premier League leaders Manchester City on Monday after they defeated Stoke City 3-0 at Old Trafford, where Paul Pogba enjoyed a man-of-the-match display.

Stoke's new manager Paul Lambert, who will take the helm at the Potters on Tuesday, watched from the stand as Antonio Valencia and Anthony Martial scored with a pair of sweet first-half strikes before Romelu Lukaku added to their misery in the second period.

The Citizens suffered their first defeat of the season in a 4-3 loss to Liverpool on Sunday, although United will need Pep Guardiola's men to drop considerably more points before they can dream of taking their place at the summit.

Valencia returned to make his first appearance in five games following injury, and Luke Shaw started at left-back with Phil Jones and Chris Smalling forming a partnership in central defence.

Peter Crouch was given the nod in attack and Stephen Ireland made his first Premier League start since April 2015, starting in midfield ahead of new arrival Moritz Bauer, who lined up at right-back.

Pogba gave the impression early on that he'd play an important role in United's assault against the Potters, regularly finding himself at the core of the home side's machinations.

And the Frenchman backed that early promise up by helping tee up Valencia for a shot in the ninth minute, cutting in off the right to curl in a sweetly struck (and rare) left-footed finish, per Sky Sports Statto:

The Red Devils maintained their place as oppressors in terms of possession, but Stoke responded well to falling behind and unearthed chances of their own, the best of those coming through the returned Ireland.

United may have been playing the superior football, but Goal's Kris Voakes highlighted it was the visitors who were challenging on goal more frequently for portions of the opening half:

But Lukaku's quality up front for United told as he began to play a more instrumental role holding up in attack for the Red Devils, playing a crucial hand in Martial's strike after 38 minutes.

Lukaku steadied the ball on the right flank before offloading to Pogba, who clinched a second assist after spraying the ball inside to Martial, who swept into the top-right corner from the edge of Stoke's area. His first-time hit caught the attention of Match of the Daypresenter Gary Lineker:

Kurt Zouma almost gifted United a third soon after half-time, passing the ball to Pogba, whose feed through to Martial was only just snuffed out by Potters goalkeeper Jack Butland storming off his line.

Pogba and Juan Mata continued to find success unlocking Stoke lines, but Lukaku and others failed to make their chances count despite some half-opportunities coming their way.

The Belgian frontman finally got the goal he deserved, though, after Martial fed Lukaku inside the Stoke box, controlling well and holding up under pressure to slam home from close range, per Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News:

Marcus Rashford and Marouane Fellaini came on in place of Jesse Lingard and Martial with 10 minutes remaining, and the former almost scored a cute, backheeled finish to round off the Red Devils rout.

Former Red Devils Mame Biram Diouf also found himself with space to grab a consolation for Stoke, but United talisman David De Gea stood tall to deny the Senegalese star at close range.

Five of United's next five games fall away from home, with their only home clash between now and February 25 a meeting against Huddersfield Town in a little more than a fortnight.

Stoke remain 18th, meanwhile, and are a point from escaping the Premier League relegation zone as Lambert looks to revive their campaign following Mark Hughes' dismissal.