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A major talking point of England's top flight season so far has been the drop of goals scored in open play and how teams are finding goals more from dead-ball situations as an alternative.

When we compare goal sources to matchday 11 last season, we note a drop of 39 goals in open-play and an increase of 26 from team set-pieces and spot-kicks, leading to 13 less overall.

If we look at overall statistics, shot attempts sides are producing reveal a staggering drop of 370 in open play than at this stage last season.

And despite the big increase in set-piece goals, we've actually seen only two additional shots produced from these situations outside of penalties, showing how effective sides are at discovering methods to score from dead-ball chances.

Scoring Rates Reveal an Interesting Narrative

Over 300 goals scored in 110 matches to date averages out at 2.74 scores per fixture, which if it continued for the entire campaign would be the lowest for half a decade, from five seasons ago (2.69 average).

However, only 196 goals coming in open-play averages out 1.78 per game and is heading to be the smallest for 16 years, since 2009-10 (1.76 per game).

2009-10 is also the only Premier League season to experience scoring at a higher rate from dead-balls without spot-kicks than the current rate of 0.77 per game (0.79 per game).

Which Sides Are Most Responsible?

Regarding goals scored from open play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have recorded the largest decrease, registering just four in their first 11 fixtures, a reduction of 10 than at this stage last season.

Excluding Wolverhampton, England's top division's drop in open-play scoring is largely a trend among London clubs, with five out of the city's seven teams scoring at least five fewer goals from open play than the previous year.

In fairness, this is primarily due to their scoring many goals at the early stages of the previous campaign as opposed to their genuine struggle to convert in open play the current term.

Conversely Manchester City have recorded the largest rise, with nearly all of their 23 goals so far arriving in open play.

Dead-Ball Dominance

Comparing newly promoted sides with those that were relegated that they superseded. Play-off winners the Black Cats have netted an additional three goals in open play than Southampton did in their opening 11 matches leading to demotion last season.

When it comes to scoring from dead-ball situations (aside from spot-kicks), the Gunners and the Blues have seen the largest rise, with each team replacing the five fewer goals that they've produced in open-play with identical figures from dead-ball chances.

Man United have recorded double the number scores from set-pieces as they did in matchday 11 last season prior to Ruben Amorim took over, while Sunderland again have been more effective at converting than the club they replaced they superseded.

Manchester City seem unaware of the message about increasing scoring from set-plays, since they've scored three fewer than the previous campaign, similar to Forest, although this could be because of the altered approach they're working to install.

League-Wide Trends

Six clubs – the Gunners, the Blues, Fulham, Newcastle, Tottenham and West Ham – represent this season's primary examples by recording fewer goals from open play and increased from set-plays, while Man City represent the sole team to defy the pattern up to now by performing the exact opposite.

It will be interesting to observe if teams carry on to depend greatly on set-pieces as the campaign progresses or if they regain their general attacking flair and begin netting increased totals in open play also.