🔗 Share this article

One of the biggest stories of the EPL season so far is the drop of scoring in open play and the way clubs are finding goals increasingly from dead-ball situations instead.

Looking at how goals have been scored to matchday 11 the prior season, we note a drop of 39 goals in open play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and penalties, giving us 13 less in total.

Considering the broader view, the number of shots sides are producing show an incredible 370 fewer in open play than this time last season.

Even with the significant rise in dead-ball scores, records show just two more shots produced from these situations excluding spot-kicks, showing how effective sides have been at discovering methods to convert from dead-ball chances.

Goal Statistics Tell an Interesting Narrative

The 301 goals notched in the first 110 fixtures up to now works out at nearly 2.75 goals per fixture, which if it continued for the entire campaign could be the lowest for five years, back in 2020-21 (2.69).

Yet merely 196 goals scored in open-play translates to 1.78 per fixture and is heading to be the least for 16 years, since 2009-10 (1.76 per game).

That campaign also marks the unique EPL campaign to experience scoring more frequently from set-plays excluding penalties than the current rate of 0.77 per fixture (0.79 per game).

What Clubs Bear the Most Responsibility?

In terms of scoring from open play, Wolves have seen the most significant drop, netting only four in 11 games, a reduction of 10 than this point the previous campaign.

Apart from Wolverhampton, the EPL's drop in open play goals is largely a London thing, with half of the London's seven clubs netting a minimum of five goals fewer from open-play than the previous year.

In fairness, this is mainly because their scoring many scores at the start of the previous campaign instead of them really struggling to convert in open play the current term.

Conversely City have seen the largest rise, with all but one of their 23 goals this season coming in open-play.

Set-Play Proficiency

Comparing newly promoted sides with those that were relegated that they superseded. Sunderland Sunderland have recorded three more goals in open-play than the Saints did in matchday 11 en route to relegation the previous campaign.

When it comes to scoring from set-plays (aside from penalties), the Gunners and Chelsea have experienced the most significant jump, with each team making up for the reduction of five goals that they've scored in open play with an equal amount from dead-ball situations.

Manchester United have recorded two times more scores from set-plays as they achieved in the 11 games last season before Ruben Amorim took over, while the Black Cats once more prove more effective at converting than the fellow red-and-whites they replaced.

Manchester City appear not to have received the memo about netting additional goals from set-plays, because they've scored three less than last season, as have Nottingham Forest, even if that might be down to the change in style they're working to install.

General Tendencies

Six teams – Arsenal, the Blues, Fulham, Newcastle, Spurs and West Ham – have been the current campaign's top trend-setters by scoring fewer scores from open play and more from set-plays, while Man City stand as the unique club to go against the grain up to now by doing the complete reverse.

It remains to be seen to observe if clubs continue to depend greatly on set-pieces as matches continue or if they rediscover their general attacking flair and begin scoring increased totals in open-play also.