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A major talking point of the Premier League this campaign concerns the decline of goals scored in open-play scenarios and the way clubs are finding goals more from dead-ball situations as an alternative.

Looking at scoring methods to matchday 11 last season, we see 39 fewer scored in open play and 26 more from set-plays and spot-kicks, giving us 13 fewer in total.

Considering overall statistics, efforts on goal clubs are making show a staggering 370 fewer in open-play than this time last time out.

Even with the significant rise in dead-ball scores, there have actually been only two additional attempts produced from these situations outside of spot-kicks, indicating the efficiency clubs are at discovering methods to net from dead-ball chances.

Goal Statistics Tell the Tale

301 total goals scored in the first 110 fixtures so far works out at 2.74 scores per fixture, which if it continued for all 38 games could be the lowest for half a decade, back in 2020-21 (2.69 per game).

But just 196 goals coming in open-play equates to 1.78 per fixture and is on course to be the smallest for 16 seasons, from 16 years ago (1.76 per game).

The 2009-10 season also marks the sole English top-flight campaign to see goals scored more frequently from non-penalty set-pieces than this campaign's frequency of 0.77 each match (0.79).

What Clubs Account for This Change?

In terms of scoring from open-play, Wolves have seen the largest decrease, registering a mere four in 11 games, a reduction of 10 than this point the previous campaign.

Outside of Wolves, the EPL's drop in open play goals is very much a trend among London clubs, with five of the city's seven teams scoring at least five fewer goals from open play than the prior season.

In fairness, this is mainly because them scoring lots of scores at the beginning of last season rather than them really struggling to find the net in open play this season.

Conversely Manchester City have seen the largest rise, with all but one of their 23 scores so far originating in open play.

Dead-Ball Dominance

We've compared newly promoted sides with the relegated sides they took the place of. Sunderland the Black Cats have scored three more goals in open-play than Southampton achieved in matchday 11 en route to relegation last season.

In terms of scoring from set-plays (aside from spot-kicks), the Gunners and Chelsea have seen the largest rise, with both sides making up for the five less scores that they've scored in open-play with an equal amount from dead-ball situations.

United have scored double the number goals from set-pieces as they did in the first 11 matches last season ahead of Ruben Amorim took over, while the Black Cats additionally have been more effective at netting than the fellow red-and-whites that went down.

Manchester City seem unaware of the memo about netting additional goals from set-plays, since they've recorded a reduction of three than the previous campaign, as have Forest, even if this may result from the altered approach they've attempted to adopt.

League-Wide Trends

Six sides – the Gunners, Chelsea, the Cottagers, the Magpies, Spurs and the Hammers – have been the current campaign's primary examples by netting less scores from open play and increased from set-pieces, while Manchester City represent the sole team to buck the trend so far by performing the complete reverse.

It will be fascinating to see if clubs carry on to rely so heavily on set-pieces as the campaign progresses or if they find again their general attacking flair and commence scoring increased totals in open play as well.