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One of the biggest stories of the EPL season so far concerns the reduction of goals scored in open play and how clubs are finding goals increasingly from set-pieces instead.

When we compare scoring methods to matchday 11 the prior season, we note 39 fewer goals in open play and an increase of 26 from set-plays and penalties, giving us 13 fewer in total.

Considering the bigger picture, efforts on goal clubs are making have seen a remarkable drop of 370 in open-play than this time previously.

And despite the big increase in set-play finishes, we've actually seen just two more shots produced from these situations excluding spot-kicks, demonstrating how effective teams are at devising strategies to score from dead-ball situations.

Goal Statistics Reveal the Tale

Over 300 goals scored in 110 games so far calculates at nearly 2.75 goals per game, which if it continued for the entire campaign would be the smallest for since 2020-21, since 2020-21 (2.69).

Yet merely 196 scores coming in open-play translates to 1.78 each match and is tracking to be the lowest for 16 seasons, since 2009-10 (1.76 per game).

That campaign is also the only Premier League campaign to witness scoring more often from non-penalty set-pieces than this campaign's frequency of 0.77 per game (0.79 per game).

What Clubs Account for This Change?

Regarding scoring from open play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have experienced the largest decline, scoring only four in 11 matches, 10 fewer than this point last season.

Outside of Wolverhampton, England's top division's fall in open play goals is very much a London phenomenon, with five out of the city's seven teams recording a minimum of five fewer goals from open play than the prior season.

In fairness, that's largely down to them netting many scores at the early stages of last season instead of them having difficulty to score in open play the current term.

Meanwhile Man City have experienced the most significant jump, with almost every one of the 23 they've scored to date coming in open play.

Dead-Ball Dominance

Looking at the promoted teams with the teams that went down they took the place of. Sunderland Sunderland have scored three extra scores in open play than Southampton achieved in their opening 11 matches leading to the drop last season.

When it comes to goals scored from set-plays (aside from penalties), the Gunners and Chelsea have seen the largest rise, with the two clubs replacing the five fewer goals that they've scored in open-play with an equal amount from dead-ball chances.

Man United have netted twice as many goals from set-pieces as they achieved in the 11 games the previous campaign before their coach took over, while Sunderland additionally prove better at converting than the fellow red-and-whites that went down.

City appear not to have received the trend about scoring more from set-pieces, because they've scored three less than last season, similar to Nottingham Forest, although this may result from the altered approach they're working to install.

General Tendencies

Six sides – the Gunners, the Blues, the Cottagers, the Magpies, Spurs and West Ham – are this season's primary examples by scoring fewer scores from open-play and more from set-plays, while Man City represent the only side to defy the pattern so far by doing the complete reverse.

It remains to be seen to observe if sides carry on to depend greatly on set-pieces as the campaign progresses or if they rediscover their all-round creativity and start netting more goals in open play as well.