Chris Coleman says that teams like Sunderland can stay in the Championship this season with fewer than 50 points.
There is a commonly held belief in the Championship that achieving 50 points is enough to avoid relegation; although Blackburn Rovers going down with 51 last season proves there is always an exception to the rule.
After 33 matches this term Sunderland sit rock bottom of the table with 26 points at an average of 0.7 points a game. To reach 50 points in their last 13 outings that would need to increase to 1.8.
That would mean that the Black Cats would have to increase their points turnover by almost three times – no mean feat for a team that have won five times in the second tier of English football all season.
So it should perhaps be greeted as good news by the Stadium of Light faithful that their manager, Chris Coleman, thinks teams will survive the drop this campaign with less than that magic number.
“If you average it over five or 10 years, it’s between 45 and 50, isn’t it? It’s tough to call,” Coleman told the Sunderland Echo.
“In the Premier League, people say 40 points, but really it’s more like 37 or 38.
“I think this year it could be less than 50 (in the Championship).”
The Wearsiders continue their fight to avoid going down to League One just 12 months after ending their 10-year stay in the Premier League when they host Middlesbrough this weekend.
Coleman’s men have lost twice to Boro already in 2017/18, both at the Riverside, beaten 1-0 in the league in November and then 2-0 in the FA Cup in January.
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