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One of the biggest stories of the EPL season so far has been the drop of goals scored in open play and how sides are finding goals more from dead-ball situations instead.

Looking at scoring methods to the first 11 games the prior season, we note 39 fewer goals in open play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and spot-kicks, giving us 13 less overall.

Considering the broader view, the number of shots clubs are making reveal a staggering drop of 370 in open play than this time last season.

And despite the significant rise in dead-ball scores, records show just two more attempts generated from them outside of penalties, indicating the efficiency clubs are at devising strategies to convert from set-pieces.

Scoring Rates Reveal a Story

The 301 goals recorded in 110 games up to now works out at 2.74 scores each match, if maintained for the entire campaign might be the smallest for half a decade, since 2020-21 (2.69 average).

But just 196 goals coming in open-play translates to 1.78 each match and is on course to be the least for since 2009-10, back in 2009-10 (1.76 per game).

That campaign is also the unique EPL campaign to experience scoring more often from dead-balls without spot-kicks than this campaign's frequency of 0.77 per game (0.79 per game).

Which Teams Account for This Change?

Regarding scoring from open play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have experienced by far the biggest decline, scoring just four in 11 games, 10 fewer than at this stage last season.

Excluding Wolves, the Premier League's drop in goals from open play is very much a London phenomenon, with five of the city's seven teams netting five or more goals fewer from open-play than the prior season.

To be fair, this is primarily due to them netting lots of scores at the start of the previous campaign as opposed to their genuine struggle to find the net in open-play the current term.

Meanwhile City have recorded the largest rise, with all but one of their 23 goals to date originating in open-play.

Set-Piece Success

We've compared newly promoted sides with the teams that went down they replaced. Sunderland Sunderland have scored three more scores in open-play than the Saints did in matchday 11 on their way to demotion the previous campaign.

When it comes to goals scored from dead-ball situations (not counting spot-kicks), the Gunners and Chelsea have seen the most significant jump, with both sides compensating for the five less goals that they've scored in open-play with identical figures from set-pieces.

Manchester United have scored twice as many scores from set-pieces as they managed in matchday 11 last season before the manager took over, while Sunderland again are more successful at netting than the club they replaced they replaced.

Manchester City appear not to have received the trend about netting additional goals from set-plays, since they've netted three less than the previous campaign, as have Forest, though this may result from the altered approach they have tried to implement.

Overall Patterns

Six clubs – the Gunners, Chelsea, Fulham, the Magpies, Tottenham and the Hammers – are the current campaign's leading trend-followers by netting less goals from open play and more from set-pieces, while City are the unique club to buck the trend up to now by doing the exact opposite.

It will be fascinating to watch if sides carry on to place such emphasis on set-pieces as matches continue or if they rediscover their overall inventiveness and start scoring additional scores in open play also.