View: Martha Thomas stakes claim for WSL Golden Boot, Tottenham Women form could break records
Martha Thomas was in lethal form as Tottenham Women shot up to second in the WSL with a 4-2 win away against Aston Villa on Saturday.
Thomas, 27, scored three goals as Spurs came from behind to win at the Bescot Stadium in Walsall, meaning she’s now clear at the top of the WSL top goalscorer chart.
After four appearances, the Scotland international has six goals but what’s more impressive about her appearance against Aston Villa Women was that she generated such a low xG.
According to stats by FBref, Thomas had an xG of just 0.3, meaning she was lucky to score one goal against the Villans – let alone three.
Of her four shots at goal, three of them hit the target and all three of them went in but clearly, the stats suggest none of them were tap-ins.
The WSL’s official X account shows one of the former Manchester United striker’s goals, where she runs onto a through ball and places a beautiful curling shot past Rachel Corsie from outside of the home side’s penalty area.
It seemed as though Thomas had taken a bad touch to ruin her run onto the through ball because many would have expected her to continue through on goal and have a shot inside the penalty area in a one-on-one situation.
But the swagging Scot seemed to know exactly what she was doing; it wasn’t a bad touch, she was teeing herself up for a goal-of-the-month contender.
Stats by FBref show that in her four WSL appearances this season, Thomas has an xG of 2.6 but scored six goals which beats her previous WSL record goal haul of five goals in 2021/22 at Manchester United.
As seen in the stats above, Thomas has steadily improved in her four WSL appearances this season.
In the club’s WSL opener against Chelsea, she should have scored more than once and squandered a lot of chances. However, she became more and more clinical as fewer shots never once resulted in fewer goals being scored.
And then her performance against Villa was pretty much a dream one for a striker as all but one of her four shots hit the back of the net – even though they were never likely to.
Thomas now has to be taken seriously as a contender for the WSL Golden Boot award.
As it stands, the Scottish ace has double the number of goals Manchester City’s Jill Roord and Brighton’s Elisabeth Terlang have and they’re joint-second in the running to be top goalscorer.
If Thomas keeps up with the goalscoring rate she’s currently at, she will score 33 goals this season, which shatters the previous record haul of 22 by Vivianne Miedema and Rachel Daly in 2018/19 and 2022/23 respectively.
It’s fair to say Thomas’ form has taken everyone in the WSL by surprise based on the fact that it was widely assumed Beth England would be Spurs’ go-to striker this season.
However, England’s injury woes have been seen as an opportunity by Thomas and she’s seized it with both hands.
In other Tottenham Women news, our women’s team expert has shared an early-season verdict.