Leicester's season starts now, says Ranieri
LONDON (Reuters) - Manager Claudio Ranieri is confident Leicester City's first win of the season can be a platform for the rest of the campaign after they beat Swansea City 2-1 at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.
Leicester started the season slowly, becoming the first Premier League champions to lose their opening match as they went down 2-1 at Hull City before drawing 0-0 at home to Arsenal last weekend.
"These three points are very important...in two matches at home we took four points which is okay," Ranieri told the BBC. "We have a very good platform."
Leicester lost midfielder N'Golo Kante to Chelsea in the close season but have retained Riyad Mahrez, Danny Drinkwater and Jamie Vardy, with the latter two particularly influential against Swansea.
In a move that became a trademark of their lethal counter-attacking performances last season, Drinkwater picked out Vardy from inside his own half and the striker beat keeper Lukasz Fabianski with aplomb in the 31st minute.
"We wanted to keep all our players," Ranieri said. "It wasn't possible and one went away but it's okay. We are happy and now we start our season."
Mahrez found the net from the spot against Hull but had a penalty saved by Fabianski before Leroy Fer netted late on for Swansea.
"We have got that win now and we just move forward," added captain Wes Morgan who scored Leicester's second goal. "Credit to the team, we stood firm."
(Reporting by Ed Dove; Editing by Tony Jimenez)