Arsenal Women’s Beth Mead said there is a lot of belief in their side following their 6-0 WSL win over Reading on Sunday.

Mead netted the third Gunners goal in first-half injury time, after Vivianne Miedema and Jordan Nobbs struck inside seven minutes at Meadow Park.

Miedema went on to complete a hat-trick in the second half, with fellow Dutch international Danielle Van de Donk also on target.

And Mead feels the team have made progress in front of goal since last season, saying: “We’re scoring a lot of goals at the moment and believing in ourselves and finishing the chances that come to us.

“I feel that’s a big difference to what we did last season.

“It was a great start from ourselves and we didn’t want to take our foot off the pedal.”

Kim Little’s absence was barely noticed as Miedema’s looping header found the far corner of the net on three minutes, before Nobbs capitalised on a mix-up in Reading’s defence to double the advantage.

Both goalscorers spurned other chances, while Fara Williams was denied from Gemma Davison’s pass by Pauline Peyraud-Magnin at the other end.

But Arsenal went 3-0 up before half time when Mead curled a shot past the helpless Grace Moloney.

And the home side picked up from where they left off after the restart, as Miedema finished from a Katie McCabe cross on 50 minutes.

Arsenal continued to pepper the Reading goal and Van de Donk added the fifth from close range with a quarter of an hour remaining, before Miedema completed her treble with an accurate finish late on.

Mead added: “We appreciate our clean sheets just as much as our goals.

“We let quite a few goals in against West Ham, so to have two clean sheets against two big teams is massive and it’s helping us with the wins.”

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Arsenal: Peyraud-Magnin, Williamson, Bloodworth (Quinn 64), Mitchell, Walti, Evans, Nobbs (Kuyken 84), McCade, Van de Donk, Mead (Samuelsson 78), Miedema. Unused sub: Van Veenendaal.

Attendance: 1,586.