Villarreal coach Fran Escriba hopes Brazilian forward Alexandre Pato can maintain the high level he showed at the weekend.
Pato turned in an impressive performance and scored his second La Liga goal, his first since Sept. 26, in Saturday's 3-1 win at Sporting Gijon.
Marca hailed Pato's effort in Gijon as his best of the season and said that the 27-year-old had turned into a swan after having previously been the "ugly duckling" -- a reference to the name "Pato," which means duck in Spanish and Portuguese.
"This is the level that we demand of Pato because he is a great player," Villarreal coach Fran Escriba said as reported in El Mundo Deportivo. "He played at a great level against Atletico Madrid and he again handed in a great performance."
Pato had failed to score in his previous six appearance before finding the back of the net to add the Yellow Submarine's third on Saturday.
The 27-year-old, who played for AC Milan from 2007 until 2013 before returning to Brazil with Corinthians, is in his first season in La Liga and is looking to revive his career.
Pato failed to impress at Chelsea, where he spent the second half of last season and scored one goal in two Premier League appearances.
The South American has started in eight La Liga games and made five appearances in the Europa League, scoring two goals and setting up one more to help the Spanish club progress to the round of 32.
Saturday's win was Villarreal's first on the road since a 2-0 victory at Malaga on Sept. 10 and it lifted Escriba's side to fourth in the standings.
Escriba was able to breathe a sigh of relief in the 19th minute when Nicola Sansone's opener in El Molinon ended the worst goal drought in recent years for the Villarreal strikers.
Not since Cedric Bakambu had scored the winner in Villarreal's 2-1 home win over Las Palmas on Oct. 23 had a Villarreal striker found the back of the net in Spain's top flight.
Villarreal, who will take on Roma next in the Europa League, end the year at home to Toledo in Tuesday's Copa del Rey round-of-32 return leg.
Escriba's men hold a 3-0 advantage after the first leg.