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A key narrative of England's top flight season so far has been the reduction of scoring in open play and the way teams are finding goals more from dead-ball situations instead.

Looking at how goals have been scored to the initial 11 matches last season, there have been 39 fewer goals in open play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and spot-kicks, giving us 13 less overall.

If we look at the bigger picture, efforts on goal clubs are making reveal a staggering drop of 370 in open play than this time last season.

And despite the significant rise in set-play finishes, we've actually seen only two additional attempts created from these situations excluding penalties, showing the efficiency sides have been at devising strategies to net from dead-ball situations.

Scoring Rates Tell an Interesting Narrative

Over 300 goals scored in 110 games up to now works out at 2.74 scores each match, which if it continued for the entire campaign would be the smallest for half a decade, since 2020-21 (2.69).

But just under 200 goals coming in open-play averages out 1.78 per game and is tracking to be the least for 16 years, back in 2009-10 (1.76 average).

That campaign also marks the unique EPL campaign to see scoring at a higher rate from non-penalty set-pieces than this campaign's frequency of 0.77 each match (0.79 average).

What Clubs Bear the Most Responsibility?

When it comes to scoring from open-play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have recorded by far the biggest decrease, scoring only four in 11 games, 10 fewer than at this stage the previous campaign.

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

In fairness, this is primarily due to them netting lots of scores at the beginning of last season as opposed to them having difficulty to find the net in open play this season.

Meanwhile Manchester City have experienced the largest rise, with almost every one of their 23 scores this season coming in open-play.

Set-Piece Success

Comparing newly promoted sides with the teams that went down they replaced. Play-off winners Sunderland have recorded three more scores in open-play than Southampton managed in their opening 11 matches on their way to the drop the previous campaign.

When it comes to goals scored from dead-ball situations (excluding penalties), the Gunners and Chelsea have recorded the biggest increase, with both sides replacing the five less scores that they've netted in open play with identical figures from dead-ball situations.

Manchester United have scored double the number goals from set-pieces as they did in the 11 games the previous campaign ahead of the manager assumed control, while Sunderland additionally are better at converting than the fellow red-and-whites they superseded.

Manchester City don't seem to have got the trend about scoring more from set-plays, because they've recorded three fewer than the previous campaign, like Forest, although this could be because of the change in style they're working to install.

Overall Patterns

Six sides – the Gunners, Chelsea, the Cottagers, Newcastle, Spurs and West Ham – are this season's primary examples by scoring fewer scores from open-play and increased from set-pieces, while Man City represent the unique club to go against the grain so far by performing the exact opposite.

It will be interesting to watch if clubs continue to depend greatly on set-pieces as the season goes on or if they find again their overall inventiveness and commence netting more goals in open-play as well.