Is the Entertainment Fading? The Decline of Open-Play Goals from Open Play
A major talking point of England's top flight this campaign concerns the reduction of goals scored in open play and the way clubs are finding goals more from dead-ball situations instead.
When we compare how goals have been scored to matchday 11 last season, we note 39 fewer goals in open-play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and penalties, resulting in 13 less overall.
Examining the bigger picture, shot attempts sides are producing reveal a staggering drop of 370 in open play than at this stage last time out.
Even with the significant rise in dead-ball scores, records show just two more attempts created from them outside of spot-kicks, demonstrating the proficiency teams have been at finding ways to convert from dead-ball situations.
Scoring Rates Tell the Tale
The 301 goals notched in 110 games to date calculates at 2.74 goals each match, if this persists for the whole season might be the least for half a decade, since 2020-21 (2.69 per game).
However, only 196 goals coming in open-play equates to 1.78 per game and is heading to be the lowest for 16 years, since 2009-10 (1.76 average).
The 2009-10 season is also the sole English top-flight season to witness goals scored more frequently from non-penalty set-pieces than this campaign's frequency of 0.77 per game (0.79 per game).
Which Teams Bear the Most Responsibility?
In terms of scoring from open-play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have experienced by far the biggest decrease, scoring a mere four in their first 11 fixtures, a reduction of 10 than at this stage the previous campaign.
Apart from Wolves, the Premier League's drop in open-play scoring is predominantly a London phenomenon, with half of the capital's seven sides scoring a minimum of five fewer goals from open play than the previous year.
In fairness, this is primarily due to them scoring lots of goals at the start of last season as opposed to their genuine struggle to find the net in open-play this season.
Meanwhile Man City have experienced the biggest increase, with nearly all of their 23 goals this season arriving in open-play.
Set-Play Proficiency
Looking at the promoted teams with the teams that went down they replaced. Play-off winners the Black Cats have netted an additional three scores in open-play than the Saints achieved in their first 11 games en route to demotion last season.
When it comes to scoring from set-pieces (not counting penalties), Arsenal and Chelsea have seen the most significant jump, with the two clubs compensating for the reduction of five goals that they've netted in open-play with an equal amount from set-pieces.
United have recorded double the number scores from set-pieces as they managed in matchday 11 the previous campaign prior to Ruben Amorim took charge, while the Black Cats again prove more effective at scoring than the club they replaced they superseded.
Man City appear not to have received the memo about increasing scoring from set-plays, because they've recorded a reduction of three than last season, as have Forest, though that might be down to the tactical shift they've attempted to adopt.
League-Wide Trends
Six clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, the Magpies, Spurs and the Hammers – have been the current campaign's top trend-setters by scoring fewer goals from open play and additional from set-pieces, while Manchester City represent the only side to buck the trend so far by achieving the exact opposite.
It will be fascinating to watch if teams continue to depend greatly on set-pieces as matches continue or if they find again their all-round creativity and begin netting increased totals in open-play too.