Are You Not Being Entertained? The Decline of the Goals from Open Play
One of the biggest stories of England's top flight season so far has been the reduction of goals scored in open-play scenarios and how sides have been scoring increasingly from dead-ball situations instead.
Comparing how goals have been scored to matchday 11 last season, we see a drop of 39 goals in open-play and 26 more from team set-pieces and spot-kicks, giving us 13 less altogether.
Examining the bigger picture, shot attempts clubs are making have seen an incredible 370 fewer in open play than at this stage previously.
Regardless of the big increase in set-piece goals, records show just two more shots generated from them excluding penalties, showing the proficiency teams have been at finding ways to score from set-pieces.
Goal Statistics Show a Story
Over 300 goals scored in 110 games to date works out at nearly 2.75 goals per fixture, if maintained for the whole season would be the smallest for half a decade, from five seasons ago (2.69 per game).
Yet merely 196 goals coming in open-play equates to 1.78 per fixture and is on course to be the lowest for 16 seasons, from 16 years ago (1.76 average).
The 2009-10 season additionally represents the unique EPL campaign to see scoring more frequently from set-plays excluding penalties than this season's rate of 0.77 each match (0.79).
What Clubs Bear the Most Responsibility?
Regarding scoring from open-play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have experienced the largest decline, registering a mere four in 11 games, 10 less than this point the previous campaign.
Excluding Wolverhampton, the Premier League's drop in open play goals is predominantly a London phenomenon, with half of the city's seven teams netting a minimum of five fewer goals from open play than last season.
In fairness, this is mainly because them netting many scores at the beginning of the previous campaign rather than them having difficulty to find the net in open-play this campaign.
Conversely City have seen the largest rise, with all but one of the 23 they've scored to date originating in open-play.
Set-Piece Success
Looking at newly promoted sides with the teams that went down they replaced. Play-off winners Sunderland have scored three extra scores in open-play than Southampton did in matchday 11 leading to demotion the previous campaign.
Regarding goals scored from set-plays (excluding penalties), Arsenal and the Blues have seen the largest rise, with each team making up for the five fewer goals that they've produced in open play with the same number from set-pieces.
Manchester United have netted two times more scores from set-plays as they achieved in the first 11 matches last season before the manager assumed control, while the Black Cats additionally have been more successful at netting than the club they replaced that went down.
City don't seem to have got the memo about increasing scoring from set-pieces, because they've scored a reduction of three than last season, as have Nottingham Forest, even if this could be because of the change in style they've attempted to adopt.
League-Wide Trends
Six teams – Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, the Magpies, Tottenham and the Hammers – represent the current campaign's primary examples by scoring fewer goals from open-play and more from set-pieces, while Manchester City are the sole team to buck the trend so far by achieving the complete reverse.
It remains to be seen to watch if clubs carry on to place such emphasis on set-pieces as the campaign progresses or if they find again their general attacking flair and start converting increased totals in open-play also.
