Where Has the Excitement Gone? The Decline of the Goal Scoring
A major talking point of England's top flight season so far concerns the decline of scoring in open play and the way sides have been scoring increasingly from dead-ball situations as an alternative.
Comparing scoring methods to the initial 11 matches last season, we note 39 fewer scored in open play and 26 more from team set-pieces and penalties, resulting in 13 less overall.
Examining overall statistics, the number of shots sides are producing reveal an incredible drop of 370 in open play than at this stage last time out.
Even with the notable jump in set-play finishes, there have actually been a mere two extra attempts created from them excluding penalties, demonstrating how effective clubs are at devising strategies to net from dead-ball situations.
Goal Statistics Show an Interesting Narrative
Over 300 goals notched in 110 matches up to now works out at 2.74 goals per fixture, if this persists for the entire campaign would be the least for half a decade, from five seasons ago (2.69).
Yet merely 196 goals scored in open play translates to 1.78 per fixture and is tracking to be the least for since 2009-10, back in 2009-10 (1.76).
The 2009-10 season additionally represents the unique EPL campaign to witness goals scored at a higher rate from non-penalty set-pieces than the current rate of 0.77 per fixture (0.79 per game).
Which Teams Account for This Change?
When it comes to goals scored from open play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have experienced the largest drop, netting just four in 11 games, 10 less than this point the previous campaign.
Apart from Wolverhampton, the EPL's decline in goals from open play is very much a trend among London clubs, with half of the London's seven clubs netting five or more less scores from open-play than the prior season.
In fairness, this is mainly because them scoring many scores at the early stages of the previous campaign rather than them having difficulty to find the net in open play the current term.
Meanwhile Man City have recorded the most significant jump, with nearly all of the 23 they've scored so far arriving in open play.
Dead-Ball Dominance
Looking at newly promoted sides with the teams that went down they replaced. Sunderland the Black Cats have netted an additional three scores in open-play than Southampton did in their first 11 games on their way to demotion last season.
When it comes to scoring from set-plays (excluding penalties), the Gunners and Chelsea have seen the biggest increase, with each team making up for the five less goals that they've produced in open-play with the same number from dead-ball chances.
United have netted two times more goals from set-plays as they did in matchday 11 last season ahead of their coach took charge, while the Black Cats again have been better at scoring than the fellow red-and-whites they replaced.
City appear not to have received the message about increasing scoring from set-plays, since they've netted three fewer than the previous campaign, as have Nottingham Forest, even if this could be because of the change in style they're working to install.
League-Wide Trends
Six teams – the Gunners, Chelsea, Fulham, the Magpies, Spurs and the Hammers – are this season's primary examples by scoring fewer goals from open-play and additional from set-pieces, while Manchester City stand as the sole team to go against the grain to date by achieving the contrary.
It will be fascinating to watch if teams continue to rely so heavily on set-pieces as the campaign progresses or if they rediscover their all-round creativity and commence converting more goals in open-play also.
