We have rarely seen a relegation fight like it. With three games to go, the quest for Premier League safety looks set to go down to the wire and it may be a record amount of points is required to avoid dropping into the Championship.
West Ham United currently occupy 18th, the final relegation spot - Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers have been relegated - despite already having 36 points on the board.
Tottenham Hotspur are one point and one place above them, while Nottingham Forest are 16th on 42 points. Even Crystal Palace (14th) and Leeds United (15th) are not yet mathematically safe with 43 points.
In recent Premier League seasons, all five clubs would be breathing easy by now with such points totals.
No team have gone down with 36 or more points since Newcastle United were relegated with 37 in 2015/16.
In fact, across all the campaigns since the Premier League was reduced from 22 to 20 teams in 1995, the average points tally for the team finishing 18th, and safe, is 34.5.
Forty points have long been viewed as the magic number when it comes to how many are required to stay up. But only once in the past 22 seasons has that actually been needed – when Birmingham City went down with 39 points in 2010/11.
Whichever team end up going down this season, then, will do so with one of the highest points totals of a relegated team in Premier League history.
The club who currently hold that record in a 38-game campaign are West Ham. They dropped into the second tier in 2002/03 after finishing with 42 points.
That year, the Hammers lost only one of their last 11 games, with their 15 points from their final eight matches the most of any side relegated to the Championship.
The next-highest tally a team went down with is 40, Sunderland in 1996/97 and Bolton Wanderers in 1997/98.
The quality of this season’s relegation fight is in sharp contrast to last term, when Leicester City ended up 18th with only 25 points – 13 points off 17th-placed Spurs.
The Foxes were the third team in five years to finish third-bottom with fewer than 30 points, after Luton Town with 26 in 2023/24 and Fulham with 28 in 2020/21.
This year, the teams fighting relegation are all finding form in The Run In.
West Ham’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford last Saturday was just their second loss in seven matches.
Spurs won at Aston Villa to make it back-to-back Premier League victories for the first time since August and seven points form a possible nine.
Forest are unbeaten in seven top-flight matches with three straight wins, while Leeds have climbed to the brink of safety with three victories from their last four games.
This weekend promises to be another pivotal one in the fight to avoid the drop.
Remaining fixtures
Matchweek Spurs West Ham Nott'm Forest 36 LEE (H) ARS (H) NEW (H) 37 CHE (A) NEW (A) MUN (A) 38 EVE (H) LEE (H) BOU (H)
On Sunday, Nuno Espirito Santo’s Hammers host title-chasing Arsenal at the London Stadium, where they have not lost since January.
Forest will look to keep their undefeated run going when they face Newcastle at the City Ground, while Roberto De Zerbi’s resurgent Spurs entertain Leeds on Monday.