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A key narrative of England's top flight season so far has been the drop of goals scored in open play and how clubs have been scoring more from dead-ball situations as an alternative.

Comparing how goals have been scored to matchday 11 the prior season, we see a drop of 39 scored in open play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and spot-kicks, giving us 13 less overall.

Considering overall statistics, efforts on goal teams are taking reveal a remarkable 370 fewer in open-play than at this stage last season.

And despite the significant rise in set-play finishes, we've actually seen just two more attempts generated from them excluding spot-kicks, indicating how effective clubs have been at devising strategies to net from dead-ball chances.

Scoring Rates Reveal an Interesting Narrative

The 301 goals recorded in the first 110 fixtures to date works out at nearly 2.75 goals per fixture, if maintained for the whole season might be the lowest for five years, since 2020-21 (2.69 average).

However, only 196 scores coming in open-play equates to 1.78 per game and is on course to be the lowest for 16 seasons, since 2009-10 (1.76 average).

That campaign is also the sole English top-flight season to experience goals scored more often from non-penalty set-pieces 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 recorded the most significant drop, registering only four in 11 matches, 10 fewer than at this stage the previous campaign.

Apart from Wolverhampton, the Premier League's fall in open-play scoring is predominantly a London phenomenon, with half of the city's seven teams netting a minimum of five fewer goals from open play than the previous year.

Honestly, that's largely down to them netting numerous goals at the start of last season rather than them really struggling to find the net in open play the current term.

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

Set-Play Proficiency

Looking at the promoted teams with the teams that went down they replaced. Sunderland Sunderland have recorded an additional three goals in open-play than the Saints managed in their opening 11 matches en route to relegation last season.

In terms of goals scored from dead-ball situations (not counting spot-kicks), Arsenal and Chelsea have seen the largest rise, with both sides replacing the reduction of five scores that they've scored in open play with the same number from dead-ball situations.

United have scored twice as many goals from set-plays as they managed in matchday 11 the previous campaign ahead of the manager assumed control, while the Black Cats once more have been more successful at scoring than the similar-colored team that went down.

Manchester City seem unaware of the memo about netting additional goals from set-pieces, as they've netted three fewer than last season, as have Nottingham Forest, although this may result from the change in style they've attempted to adopt.

League-Wide Trends

Six clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, the Cottagers, Newcastle, Tottenham and West Ham – have been the current campaign's leading trend-followers by netting less scores from open-play and additional from set-plays, while Manchester City are the sole team to buck the trend so far by achieving the exact opposite.

It remains to be seen to observe if sides continue to rely so heavily on set-plays as the campaign progresses or if they rediscover their general attacking flair and start scoring more goals in open play as well.