It was something on the minds of every Spurs fan to ponder when back in the first half of the season, Martha Thomas was banging the goals in left right and centre. The Scottish attacker found herself awarded the Barclays Women’s Super League player of the month as the 2023/24 campaign went underway, having written her name on to the scoresheet on six seperate occasions throughout October.

That question that followed was of course, ‘Could Martha Thomas and Beth England play together?’

This seemed like a rhetorical question, but it did have premise. Thomas rocketed to the top of the Women’s Super League goalscoring charts at the back end of last year. She has now slipped to 6th, but with seven goals in 14 WSL matches this term, the Scot seems to have picked up the baton handed to her by Bethany England.

The passing of the torch from Spurs’ Number 19 was injury enforced yes, but not even the most optimistic Spurs fan could’ve thought that Thomas would’ve taken to Tottenham the way she has.

Trying to fill the boots of someone who scored 13 goals in 15 games and single handedly kept Spurs in the league last year was always going to be a tough task, but from her first goal in her Spurs league debut away at Stamford Bridge on the opening day, you could see there was more to come.

She could’ve arguably had more than the one that October evening in West London, notably putting a couple of efforts straight at Zecira Musovic in the Chelsea goal.

Following that goal, she bagged a hat trick against Aston Villa along with goals against Brighton and Bristol City, taking her tally to six goals in her first four matches in the league for Spurs.

Her latest WSL goal this campaign was the decisive strike in the historic 1-0 win over Arsenal before the Christmas break. That also came in the match Beth England made her return from injury for Robert Vilahamn’s side.

Since her return from injury, eight games have passed for Beth England, but the appearances have only yielded two goals, both of which in the dramatic 3-2 FA Cup turnaround win over Sheffield United in January. Yes, she is far from her sparkling, dazzling best, but the real conundrum lies within the question of whether the English forward and Martha Thomas work cohesively in the same side together.

Back in November Vilahamn spoke to SheKicks Magazine, expressing the fact that he was confident that Thomas and England could both play together.

The Spurs boss expressed, “Good players can play together, and I can make sure it fits the way I want to play, so I’m kind of just waiting for that moment to play them both.”

“If you look at Beth England before, she was a nine, Martha now, she’s a nine, so if you just look at it, they will compete against that position. But I’m quite flexible in my way to find new roles for players, so I’m quite sure that I’m going to find a way for them to play at the same time.”

When Thomas and England have both played and started together since the turn of the year, it’s usually materialised in a 4-4-2 formation, with both strikers leading the line.

Spurs’ captain usually takes up the central striker role whenever she steps on the pitch, but as we’ve seen often, she likes to drop deep and pick up the ball whilst allowing runners such as Thomas, Grace Clinton and the energetic Jess Naz to run beyond her.

However, the partnership that promised so much just hasn’t met the expectations that Spurs supporters may have hoped to see manifest. Whether it’s related to a fitness situation, with England still returning to her best from injury, or the use of the substitutes such as Ramona Petzelberger and Matilda Vinberg, the two number nines often are hauled off before the ninety, with very little impact.

It might feel quite unfair to put a stop to an experiment that clearly involves at least one player who isn’t up to her usual speeds. However, it has left players such as the likes of Ellie Brazil, Rosella Ayane and the aforementioned Petzelberger and Naz, reduced to either sub appearances, or no game time at all.

When Grace Clinton is marked out of the game by tactical opponents, Tottenham’s attacking line struggles to shift the responsibility of producing a creative outlet. The Spurs fell to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Aston Villa last weekend, as the Villans boss, Carla Ward, made specific mention of the fact that her side were paying particular attention to Clinton.

Clinton’s absent effect meant that Thomas and England struggled to find their footing, as the two strikers found difficulty in gaining their own possession. Vilahamn finds himself in the possession of two excellent attacking presences, though neither seem to work in cohesion to catalyse an attacking threat.

It remains to be seen whether Vilahamn will be able to get the very best out of his main two marksman. The Swede however has risen to every challenge posted his way in his first season in England, with everyone of a Spurs persuasion at heart hopefully he will be able to get Thomas and England firing on all cylinders sooner rather than later.