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A major talking point of England's top flight season so far is the reduction of goals scored in open play and the way teams are netting increasingly from set-plays instead.

Looking at how goals have been scored to the initial 11 matches last season, we see a drop of 39 goals in open play and 26 more from set-plays and spot-kicks, leading to 13 fewer altogether.

Considering the bigger picture, shot attempts clubs are making reveal an incredible drop of 370 in open play than this time last season.

Even with the notable jump in dead-ball scores, we've actually seen only two additional shots created from these situations excluding spot-kicks, demonstrating the proficiency teams have been at discovering methods to score from dead-ball situations.

Goal Averages Reveal an Interesting Narrative

The 301 goals scored in 110 matches up to now calculates at nearly 2.75 goals per fixture, if maintained for the whole season might be the smallest for half a decade, from five seasons ago (2.69).

Yet merely under 200 goals scored in open-play equates to 1.78 each match and is tracking to be the lowest for 16 years, from 16 years ago (1.76).

2009-10 also marks the only Premier League season to see scoring at a higher rate from non-penalty set-pieces than the current rate of 0.77 each match (0.79 average).

What Clubs Bear the Most Responsibility?

In terms of scoring from open-play, Wolverhampton Wanderers have recorded the most significant decline, netting only four in 11 matches, a reduction of 10 than this point the previous campaign.

Outside of Wolves, the EPL's drop in open play goals is largely a London phenomenon, with five of the London's seven clubs recording five or more fewer goals from open-play than the previous year.

In fairness, that's largely down to them netting many goals at the early stages of last season instead of them having difficulty to convert in open play this campaign.

Meanwhile City have seen the most significant jump, with nearly all of the 23 they've scored so far arriving in open play.

Set-Play Proficiency

Looking at newly promoted sides with the relegated sides they took the place of. Play-off winners Sunderland have netted three more scores in open-play than Southampton managed in their opening 11 matches leading to relegation the previous campaign.

In terms of scoring from dead-ball situations (excluding penalties), Arsenal and the Blues have seen the biggest increase, with both sides replacing the reduction of five scores that they've netted in open-play with identical figures from dead-ball situations.

Man United have netted two times more scores from set-plays as they did in the first 11 matches the previous campaign before Ruben Amorim took over, while the Black Cats additionally prove more successful at scoring than the similar-colored team that went down.

Manchester City appear not to have received the memo about netting additional goals from set-pieces, as they've recorded three fewer than last season, like Nottingham Forest, although that might be down to the altered approach they have tried to implement.

League-Wide Trends

Six clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, the Cottagers, Newcastle, Spurs and the Hammers – represent this season's primary examples by scoring fewer scores from open-play and increased from set-plays, while Man City represent the only side to go against the grain up to now by achieving the contrary.

It will be fascinating to see if sides persist to depend greatly on set-plays as the campaign progresses or if they rediscover their general attacking flair and start netting more goals in open-play too.