Is the Entertainment Fading? This Drop of the Goals from Open Play
One of the biggest stories of England's top flight season so far concerns the reduction of goals scored in open play and the way teams are finding goals increasingly from set-pieces instead.
When we compare how goals have been scored to the first 11 games the prior season, there have been a drop of 39 goals in open-play and 26 more from set-plays and spot-kicks, giving us 13 less overall.
If we look at the broader view, shot attempts teams are taking show a staggering 370 fewer in open-play than at this stage last time out.
And despite the significant rise in set-play finishes, there have actually been just two more shots generated from them outside of spot-kicks, indicating the proficiency teams have been at discovering methods to score from dead-ball chances.
Scoring Rates Tell a Story
Over 300 goals scored in 110 matches so far calculates at 2.74 scores per fixture, if maintained for the entire campaign could be the smallest for half a decade, from five seasons ago (2.69 per game).
But just under 200 goals coming in open play averages out 1.78 per fixture and is heading to be the lowest for since 2009-10, since 2009-10 (1.76 per game).
The 2009-10 season also marks the sole English top-flight season to see goals scored more frequently from dead-balls without spot-kicks than this season's rate of 0.77 per fixture (0.79 average).
Which Teams Are Most Responsible?
When it comes to goals scored from open-play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have recorded the largest drop, netting only four in 11 matches, 10 less than this point the previous campaign.
Excluding Wolverhampton, the EPL's decline in goals from open play is very much a London thing, with five out of the city's seven teams recording five or more fewer goals from open play than the previous year.
In fairness, this is mainly because them netting numerous goals at the beginning of the previous campaign instead of them really struggling to score in open play the current term.
Meanwhile Manchester City have seen the biggest increase, with nearly all of their 23 scores so far originating in open play.
Dead-Ball Dominance
Comparing the promoted teams with those that were relegated that they superseded. Sunderland Sunderland have recorded three more scores in open-play than Southampton managed in their first 11 games en route to relegation the previous campaign.
Regarding scoring from set-plays (aside from spot-kicks), Arsenal and the Blues have experienced the most significant jump, with each team replacing the reduction of five goals that they've produced in open play with the same number from dead-ball situations.
United have netted twice as many scores from set-plays as they achieved in the first 11 matches the previous campaign prior to their coach took over, while Sunderland additionally are better at converting than the similar-colored team they replaced.
Man City don't seem to have got the message about scoring more from set-plays, as they've netted three less than the previous campaign, as have Forest, though that might be down to the tactical shift they've attempted to adopt.
League-Wide Trends
Six sides – the Gunners, Chelsea, the Cottagers, the Magpies, Tottenham and West Ham – represent this term's top trend-setters by netting less goals from open-play and increased from set-pieces, while Man City are the only side to buck the trend to date by performing the exact opposite.
It remains to be seen to watch if sides persist to depend greatly on set-plays as matches continue or if they find again their general attacking flair and start scoring more goals in open-play too.
