Is the Entertainment Fading? This Drop of the Goals from Open Play

A major talking point of the EPL season so far is the drop of goals scored in open-play scenarios and the way teams are finding goals more from dead-ball situations as an alternative.

When we compare how goals have been scored to matchday 11 the prior season, there have been 39 fewer goals in open-play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and penalties, leading to 13 less overall.

If we look at the broader view, the number of shots sides are producing show a remarkable drop of 370 in open-play than at this stage previously.

And despite the significant rise in set-piece goals, records show a mere two extra attempts produced from these situations outside of penalties, indicating the efficiency teams are at discovering methods to net from dead-ball situations.

Scoring Rates Show an Interesting Narrative

301 total goals recorded in the first 110 fixtures so far works out at 2.74 goals per fixture, if maintained for the whole season might be the lowest for five years, back in 2020-21 (2.69 average).

But just under 200 goals scored 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 per game).

2009-10 is also the only Premier League season to see goals scored more frequently from non-penalty set-pieces than the current rate of 0.77 each match (0.79 per game).

Which Sides Bear the Most Responsibility?

When it comes to scoring from open play, Wolves have experienced the most significant decrease, scoring a mere four in their first 11 fixtures, 10 less than at this stage the previous campaign.

Outside of Wolverhampton, England's top division's decline in goals from open play is largely a London phenomenon, with five of the city's seven teams netting five or more fewer goals from open-play than last season.

Honestly, this is mainly because them netting many scores at the start of last season instead of them really struggling to score in open play this campaign.

Meanwhile City have recorded the most significant jump, with all but one of their 23 scores this season arriving in open-play.

Dead-Ball Dominance

Looking at newly promoted sides with the teams that went down they took the place of. Play-off champions the Black Cats have netted three extra scores in open play than the Saints did in their opening 11 matches en route to relegation last season.

Regarding scoring from set-plays (aside from spot-kicks), the Gunners and the Blues have seen the largest rise, with the two clubs making up for the five fewer scores that they've netted in open play with identical figures from set-pieces.

Manchester United have scored double the number scores from set-pieces as they did in the 11 games the previous campaign before Ruben Amorim assumed control, while Sunderland again are more successful at converting than the club they replaced that went down.

Manchester City don't seem to have got the memo about scoring more from set-pieces, since they've netted a reduction of three than the previous campaign, as have Nottingham Forest, though this may result from the tactical shift they've attempted to adopt.

Overall Patterns

Six teams – the Gunners, the Blues, the Cottagers, the Magpies, Tottenham and West Ham – represent this term's top trend-setters by scoring fewer scores from open-play and more from set-pieces, while Manchester City are the unique club to go against the grain up to now by performing the contrary.

It will be fascinating to watch if clubs continue to depend greatly on set-pieces as matches continue or if they regain their general attacking flair and start converting increased totals in open-play too.