‘Natalia is talented in front of goal'

By Lloyd Webb

Pedro Martinez Losa has praised Natalia Pablos Sanchon after she scored twice in Arsenal’s 5-1 win against Sunderland.

The striker poked home from a few yards and then scored a volley, while two own goals from Stephanie Bannon and Dominique Janssen’s second-half strike wrapped up a convincing victory on the return of the Women’s Super League following a mid-season break.

Natalia was also voted player of the match, but Losa says a collective team effort brought the best out of the forward.

“She has that talent in front of goal,” the manager told Arsenal.com. “Every opportunity she gets, she tries to score. She scored two and I think she could have had two or three more. She gets into the right positions to score and other players bring the best out of each other.

“Players like Asisat Oshoala with her speed, Vicky Losada in the middle and Danielle Van de Donk. There was a goal from Dominique Janssen, and there was good performances from Alex Scott, Emma Mitchell and Marta Corredera. This is what you want, players who are testing you and making your selection decisions difficult. We are a team, which is the most important.

“We have a good team, and all the players in the squad are stepping up. We didn’t have important players like Jordan Nobbs, Dan Carter or even Kelly Smith, but we have other players that have done very well and we have a good group.

“The win was very good. The team had energy from the beginning. I think we worked a lot with the ball and without the ball. We were very good in terms of understanding the game and keeping possession.

“We were selecting the right options in the pass collectively, so I was very pleased - especially with the first half.

“We have another game on Wednesday [against Birmingham] we need to think about, so we had to save some energy. We have three games in six games. It is not easy, but we need to try to manage the workload so we are fresh, which is not going to be easy for some players. Birmingham will be a very difficult game.