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One of the biggest stories of England's top flight season so far has been the reduction of scoring in open play and how clubs are finding goals increasingly from set-pieces instead.

Comparing goal sources to the initial 11 matches last season, there have been 39 fewer scored in open-play and an increase of 26 from set-plays and penalties, resulting in 13 fewer overall.

Examining the bigger picture, the number of shots teams are taking show an incredible drop of 370 in open play than this time last season.

Regardless of the notable jump in dead-ball scores, we've actually seen just two more shots generated from them excluding spot-kicks, showing the efficiency clubs are at finding ways to convert from dead-ball situations.

Goal Averages Show the Tale

301 total goals notched in 110 games to date averages out at 2.74 goals each match, which if it continued for the entire campaign might be the lowest for five years, back in 2020-21 (2.69 per game).

Yet merely 196 scores scored in open play equates to 1.78 per fixture and is heading to be the least for 16 years, since 2009-10 (1.76).

The 2009-10 season also marks the sole English top-flight campaign to experience scoring more frequently from non-penalty set-pieces than this season's rate of 0.77 per game (0.79).

Which Sides Bear the Most Responsibility?

When it comes to scoring from open-play, Wolves have seen the largest decline, scoring a mere four in 11 matches, 10 less than this point last season.

Outside of Wolves, the Premier League's fall in open-play scoring is very much a trend among London clubs, with five of the city's seven teams scoring a minimum of five less scores from open-play than the previous year.

Honestly, this is primarily due to them scoring numerous scores at the early stages of the previous campaign as opposed to them really struggling to convert in open-play this season.

At the same time Man City have experienced the largest rise, with nearly all of the 23 they've scored to date arriving in open play.

Dead-Ball Dominance

Comparing clubs that came up with the relegated sides they replaced. Play-off winners the Black Cats have recorded three more goals in open play than the Saints did in their opening 11 matches on their way to the drop last season.

When it comes to scoring from set-pieces (not counting penalties), Arsenal and the Blues have experienced the largest rise, with each team making up for the five less goals that they've produced in open play with an equal amount from dead-ball situations.

United have netted two times more goals from set-plays as they did in the 11 games the previous campaign prior to Ruben Amorim assumed control, while Sunderland additionally prove more effective at netting than the fellow red-and-whites that went down.

City don't seem to have got the memo about scoring more from set-plays, as they've scored three less than the previous campaign, as have Forest, though this may result from the tactical shift they're working to install.

Overall Patterns

Six teams – the Gunners, the Blues, the Cottagers, Newcastle, Tottenham and the Hammers – have been this term's primary examples by recording fewer scores from open-play and more from set-plays, while City are the only side to buck the trend up to now by performing the contrary.

It remains to be seen to watch if sides persist to rely so heavily on set-plays as the season goes on or if they regain their all-round creativity and begin scoring more goals in open play as well.