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A key narrative of the Premier League season so far concerns the reduction of goals scored in open play and how sides have been scoring more from dead-ball situations instead.

Comparing goal sources to the first 11 games the prior season, we see a drop of 39 goals in open play and an increase of 26 from set-plays and penalties, resulting in 13 fewer in total.

Considering overall statistics, the number of shots clubs are making show a staggering 370 fewer in open play than this time previously.

Regardless of the significant rise in dead-ball scores, we've actually seen only two additional attempts generated from them excluding penalties, demonstrating the proficiency teams have been at finding ways to convert from dead-ball chances.

Goal Statistics Reveal a Story

The 301 goals recorded in 110 matches so far averages out at 2.74 goals each match, if maintained for the entire campaign could be the lowest for since 2020-21, back in 2020-21 (2.69 per game).

However, only under 200 goals scored in open play averages out 1.78 each match and is tracking to be the least for 16 years, back in 2009-10 (1.76 per game).

That campaign also marks the unique EPL campaign to see scoring at a higher rate from set-plays excluding penalties than this season's rate of 0.77 per fixture (0.79 per game).

Which Sides Account for This Change?

When it comes to scoring from open-play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have recorded by far the biggest decrease, netting a mere four in their first 11 fixtures, 10 fewer than at this stage last season.

Apart from Wolverhampton, the Premier League's drop in open-play scoring is predominantly a trend among London clubs, with half of the London's seven clubs netting a minimum of five less scores from open play than the prior season.

In fairness, this is mainly because them netting lots of goals at the beginning of the previous campaign as opposed to them really struggling to find the net in open-play this campaign.

At the same time Manchester City have seen the biggest increase, with nearly all of their 23 goals so far arriving in open-play.

Dead-Ball Dominance

Looking at the promoted teams with the relegated sides they replaced. Play-off champions Sunderland have netted an additional three scores in open-play than the Saints achieved in their opening 11 matches leading to demotion the previous campaign.

In terms of scoring from set-plays (not counting penalties), Arsenal and Chelsea have seen the largest rise, with the two clubs making up for the five less scores that they've produced in open-play with identical figures from set-pieces.

Manchester United have scored double the number scores from set-plays as they achieved in matchday 11 last season before Ruben Amorim took over, while Sunderland again prove better at netting than the club they replaced they superseded.

City don't seem to have got the trend about netting additional goals from set-pieces, because they've netted three fewer than the previous campaign, as have the Reds, though this may result from the tactical shift they've attempted to adopt.

Overall Patterns

Six teams – Arsenal, Chelsea, the Cottagers, the Magpies, Spurs and the Hammers – have been the current campaign's leading trend-followers by recording fewer goals from open-play and additional from set-pieces, while Man City represent the sole team to buck the trend to date by performing the contrary.

It will be fascinating to observe if teams carry on to rely so heavily on set-pieces as the season goes on or if they rediscover their overall inventiveness and commence converting increased totals in open play also.