WITH the Premier League relegation fight entering its critical phase, it is time to explode a couple of myths about this season’s basement battle.

The first is that you nearly always need 40 points to secure safety. Thankfully for Middlesbrough and Newcastle, and probably also Sunderland, you don’t. In fact, in only three of the last 12 seasons was a finishing total of 39 points or less enough to guarantee relegation to the Championship.

The second is that this season’s relegation battle has been somehow different because of the number of teams that have been involved in it.

With no one detached at the bottom, and with ten sides still having a mathematical chance of being relegated with four games left, many have claimed that an unusually low points total could keep a side safe.

In fact, this season shows no sign of being any different to the norm. If either Boro or Newcastle are going to haul themselves to safety, their minimum requirement is to match 17th-placed Hull City’s current total of 34 points.

And in three of the last 12 seasons, 34 points has been enough to secure survival, so there isn’t really anything new there either.

Study the relegation statistics from 1996 onwards, and you will see that the story of the drop is a relatively stable one.

The 2002-03 season stands out as an anomaly, with West Ham United, under the control of former Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder, tumbling from the top-flight despite reaching the 42-point mark. That remains a record high for relegation.

Since then, though, things have pretty much stabilised.

Sheffield United can count themselves somewhat unfortunate to have been relegated in 2007 with 38 points – and that’s before you take the Carlos Tevez saga into consideration – but Leicester (2004) and Crystal Palace (2005) can hardly complain that 33 points was not enough to keep them in the top-flight.

In the last 12 years, the average points total needed to guarantee Premier League survival was 37.25 and, looking at the current league table, it is likely that the current campaign will finish somewhere close to that mark.

That means that both Middlesbrough and Newcastle need to win more than two more matches to make themselves statistically likely to avoid the drop. Sunderland, however, need only one win.

Looking at the points totals going into this weekend, that sounds about right. Hull are on a wretched run of form, but next weekend’s home game with Stoke City offers a decent opportunity to claim at least one more victory.

That would lift the Tigers to 37 points – only a quarterof- a-point off the relegation average – and leave Boro and Newcastle needing six more points to bring goal difference into the equation.

For Newcastle, that means winning their two remaining home games, something that now looks imperative given that today’s away game takes them to second-placed Liverpool.

Assuming they fail to spring an almighty surprise against league leaders Manchester United this afternoon, it also means Boro winning two from Newcastle and West Ham United away and Aston Villa at home.

Statistically at least, Sunderland could put things to bed tomorrow if they beat Everton at home.