Premier League Stats Review: Gameweek 7 Set Pieces

This article is part of our Premier League Stats Review series.

We make a big deal about set pieces because they are good situations for players to get assists from chances created or goals from shots, and players who take a majority of their team's dead-ball opportunities are often prioritized in many fantasy formats. We generally expect assists from corners or most other free kicks, but we saw just this past weekend that goals can happen too, as James Ward-Prowse bagged two free-kick goals in addition to getting an assist off a free kick.

(Assist at 3:12 in the video, first goal at 3:59, second goal at 4:40)

Ward-Prowse is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to set pieces, as he's been responsible for 78.95 percent of Southampton's free kicks (defined as corners, free-kick crosses and free-kick shots), including 85 percent of their corners and 100 percent of their free-kick shots.

Through seven gameweeks (Aston Villa, Burnley, Manchester City and Manchester United have only played six matches), West Brom's Matheus Pereira leads the league with 86.11 percent of his team's free kicks, followed by Ward-Prowse and Youri Tielemans of Leicester City (71.43 percent). Those three are the only players in the Premier League above 56 percent, though Tielemans may not be staying there much longer, as he's generally getting opportunities that usually go to James Maddison when he's fit. Maddison didn't start Monday's match against Leeds, though he did take one corner off the bench, the same number as Tielemans, who trailed Marc Albrighton's three.

While only three players are above 56 percent, we have eight between 50.00 and 55.56, giving us 11 players who have taken at least half of their team's set pieces. Some interesting names not in that group include Trent Alexander-Arnold (45.16 percent), James Rodriguez (44.90 percent) and Willian (43.59 percent), though the latter two are more injury-related than anything else. These figures obviously benefit players who play all the time, so it's always important to review the team trends pages when really diving in. As a reminder, you can see all set-piece trends on any player page right below the game log:

Here's a breakdown of all 105 players who have taken a free kick for their teams, including their percentage of the team's free kicks and where they rank on their team in terms of set-piece share (all columns are sortable):

Another basic way to look at this is to see who led their teams in free kicks in each match this season. It's a very basic strategy, but if you're curious to see how close certain players are to set-piece monopolies, it's a somewhat helpful tool.

It was also a busy week in terms of penalties, as we had six attempts and were converted. We saw some usual suspects, such as Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Callum Wilson, but two surprises were Tielemens and Ollie Watkins. Tielemans benefited from a late penalty in Monday's match against Leeds, as Jamie Vardy had been subbed off, but there was some surprise that Maddison didn't get to take it after he drew the penalty. Meanwhile, Watkins got Aston Villa's first attempt this season, a bit of a surprise given Jack Grealish was on the pitch. Then again, Grealish missed his only opportunity last season, so maybe Watkins shouldn't be a total surprise.

Tielemans' penalty against Leeds was their fourth conceded goal from the spot this season, joining Brighton and Manchester United at the top of league in the category, though penalties are such variant actions that it's tough to target teams specifically because they have given some away.