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A key narrative of the Premier League season so far is the decline of goals scored in open play and how clubs are finding goals increasingly from set-plays instead.

Comparing goal sources to matchday 11 the prior season, there have been a drop of 39 scored in open play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and spot-kicks, giving us 13 fewer in total.

If we look at overall statistics, the number of shots teams are taking reveal a remarkable 370 fewer in open play than at this stage last season.

And despite the big increase in set-play finishes, there have actually been a mere two extra shots produced from them excluding penalties, showing how effective teams are at discovering methods to net from set-pieces.

Goal Averages Reveal a Story

301 total goals scored in the first 110 fixtures to date averages out at nearly 2.75 goals per fixture, if this persists for the entire campaign might be the lowest for since 2020-21, since 2020-21 (2.69 per game).

Yet merely 196 goals scored in open-play averages out 1.78 per game and is heading to be the smallest for 16 seasons, back in 2009-10 (1.76 per game).

That campaign also marks the only Premier League campaign to see goals scored at a higher rate from dead-balls without spot-kicks than this season's rate of 0.77 per fixture (0.79).

Which Teams Bear the Most Responsibility?

When it comes to goals scored from open-play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have experienced the most significant decrease, registering only four in 11 games, 10 fewer than this point last season.

Excluding Wolverhampton, the EPL's decline in goals from open play is very much a trend among London clubs, with five of the London's seven clubs netting at least five goals fewer from open play than last season.

To be fair, this is primarily due to them scoring many scores at the beginning of last season rather than their genuine struggle to score in open play this season.

Meanwhile City have seen the largest rise, with nearly all of their 23 goals so far originating in open-play.

Dead-Ball Dominance

Looking at clubs that came up with the relegated sides they replaced. Sunderland Sunderland have netted an additional three goals in open play than Southampton managed in their first 11 games leading to demotion the previous campaign.

Regarding goals scored from dead-ball situations (not counting penalties), Arsenal and the Blues have experienced the most significant jump, with the two clubs compensating for the five less scores that they've scored in open-play with an equal amount from set-pieces.

United have netted two times more scores from set-plays as they did in the 11 games the previous campaign before the manager took charge, while Sunderland once more prove more successful at netting than the club they replaced they replaced.

City appear not to have received the message about netting additional goals from set-plays, since they've netted a reduction of three than last season, similar to Nottingham Forest, although this could be because of the tactical shift they have tried to implement.

Overall Patterns

Six teams – Arsenal, the Blues, Fulham, the Magpies, Spurs and West Ham – are this term's leading trend-followers by netting less scores from open play and more from set-pieces, while City stand as the sole team to buck the trend so far by doing the exact opposite.

It will be interesting to watch if sides continue to depend greatly on set-plays as the season goes on or if they rediscover their overall inventiveness and begin converting more goals in open-play too.