Are You Not Being Entertained? The Fall of Open-Play Goal Scoring
One of the biggest stories of the EPL this campaign is the reduction of goals scored in open-play scenarios and the way sides have been scoring more from set-plays as an alternative.
Looking at how goals have been scored to the initial 11 matches the prior season, we note 39 fewer goals in open play and 26 more from set-plays and penalties, leading to 13 fewer overall.
Examining the broader view, shot attempts clubs are making show a remarkable drop of 370 in open-play than at this stage last season.
Regardless of the significant rise in set-play finishes, we've actually seen only two additional attempts created from these situations excluding penalties, demonstrating the proficiency clubs are at discovering methods to net from dead-ball chances.
Scoring Rates Reveal a Story
The 301 goals notched in 110 games up to now works out at nearly 2.75 goals per fixture, which if it continued for the entire campaign could be the lowest for five years, from five seasons ago (2.69).
Yet merely under 200 goals coming in open play averages out 1.78 each match and is on course to be the least for 16 seasons, from 16 years ago (1.76 average).
The 2009-10 season is also the sole English top-flight campaign to witness scoring more often from dead-balls without spot-kicks than this campaign's frequency of 0.77 each match (0.79 average).
What Clubs Bear the Most Responsibility?
In terms of goals scored from open play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have seen by far the biggest decline, netting just four in their first 11 fixtures, 10 less than this point last season.
Outside of Wolverhampton, the EPL's fall in goals from open play is largely a trend among London clubs, with five of the city's seven teams recording five or more fewer goals from open play than last season.
Honestly, this is mainly because their scoring numerous goals at the beginning of last season rather than them having difficulty to score in open-play the current term.
At the same time Manchester City have experienced the biggest increase, with all but one of their 23 scores so far arriving in open-play.
Set-Piece Success
Looking at newly promoted sides with the teams that went down they took the place of. Play-off winners Sunderland have scored an additional three goals in open-play than Southampton managed in matchday 11 on their way to relegation last season.
Regarding scoring from dead-ball situations (excluding penalties), Arsenal and Chelsea have experienced the largest rise, with both sides compensating for the reduction of five scores that they've netted in open play with the same number from set-pieces.
Manchester United have recorded two times more goals from set-plays as they did in matchday 11 the previous campaign before the manager took charge, while the Black Cats once more have been more effective at netting than the similar-colored team they replaced.
Man City seem unaware of the trend about increasing scoring from set-plays, since they've netted three fewer than the previous campaign, as have Nottingham Forest, though this may result from the altered approach they've attempted to adopt.
Overall Patterns
Six teams – Arsenal, Chelsea, the Cottagers, the Magpies, Spurs and West Ham – have been the current campaign's leading trend-followers by netting less scores from open-play and more from set-pieces, while Man City are the only side to go against the grain up to now by achieving the contrary.
It remains to be seen to observe if clubs persist to rely so heavily on set-pieces as the campaign progresses or if they regain their overall inventiveness and start scoring additional scores in open play as well.
