Is the Entertainment Fading? The Fall of Open-Play Goals from Open Play
A major talking point of the Premier League season so far concerns 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 the initial 11 matches last season, there have been a drop of 39 scored in open-play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and penalties, giving us 13 less overall.
If we look at the bigger picture, the number of shots clubs are making have seen a staggering 370 fewer in open-play than this time previously.
And despite the significant rise in dead-ball scores, records show just two more shots created from them outside of penalties, demonstrating how effective sides have been at discovering methods to convert from set-pieces.
Scoring Rates Tell a Story
The 301 goals recorded in 110 matches to date works out at 2.74 goals per fixture, if this persists for the entire campaign could be the smallest for five years, from five seasons ago (2.69 average).
But just 196 scores coming in open play translates to 1.78 per game and is tracking to be the least for 16 seasons, from 16 years ago (1.76 per game).
The 2009-10 season additionally represents the only Premier League campaign to experience goals scored more frequently from set-plays excluding penalties than the current rate of 0.77 per game (0.79 per game).
What Clubs Are Most Responsible?
In terms of goals scored from open play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have experienced the largest drop, scoring just four in 11 matches, a reduction of 10 than at this stage the previous campaign.
Apart from Wolverhampton, the Premier League's fall in goals from open play is very much a trend among London clubs, with five of the capital's seven sides scoring at least five less scores from open play than last season.
In fairness, that's largely down to them scoring lots of goals at the beginning of the previous campaign instead of them really struggling to convert in open play this season.
At the same time Man City have experienced the biggest increase, with all but one of their 23 scores so far coming in open-play.
Set-Piece Success
We've compared clubs that came up with the relegated sides that they superseded. Play-off winners the Black Cats have netted an additional three goals in open-play than Southampton managed in their first 11 games en route to relegation last season.
Regarding scoring from dead-ball situations (not counting spot-kicks), the Gunners and the Blues have seen the largest rise, with both sides replacing the reduction of five scores that they've scored in open-play with an equal amount from dead-ball situations.
United have scored two times more goals from set-pieces as they achieved in the 11 games the previous campaign before Ruben Amorim assumed control, while Sunderland again prove more effective at scoring than the club they replaced that went down.
Man City appear not to have received the trend about increasing scoring from set-plays, since they've scored a reduction of three than last season, similar to the Reds, though this could be because of the tactical shift they have tried to implement.
Overall Patterns
Six sides – Arsenal, the Blues, Fulham, Newcastle, Tottenham and West Ham – represent this season's top trend-setters by scoring fewer scores from open play and additional from set-plays, while Manchester City are the unique club to go against the grain to date by achieving the exact opposite.
It remains to be seen to observe if teams continue to depend greatly on set-plays as the season goes on or if they regain their all-round creativity and start netting more goals in open-play also.
