Here's a chance for all insomniacs to get some shut eye.

Having discovered recently that the teams around the relegation zone have gone from being one of the worst in terms of points won to some of the best, I thought I'd compare this season with the last 20 PL season. I'm looking specifically at the team in 18th place, simply because that's the target to beat.

It may, or may not surprise you to discover that there isn't too much variation on the points total of Southampton at the moment. They have 24 points. That total has been bettered only 4 times in 20 seasons, matched 4 times in 20 seasons with lower totals in the remaining 12.

Does that mean a higher than usual points total to avoid relegation? Well, the average number of points won by the team in 18th after 26 games and the team in 18th at the end of the season is 13, just over a point a game. This average has been matched or bettered by teams with 24 or more points 3 times out of 8, while it has been matched or bettered by every occasion where the team in 18th had 22 or less points. This suggests that, the lower the points tally, the more teams get results, yet when they're above average, they don't. For us that has to be a positive. If 36 points relegated a team this season they'll have been unlucky in terms of statistics.

In those 20 seasons, there have only been 4 occasions where teams with 7 wins (as we have) or more have been relegated - the last in 2011. Our downside is our lack of draws.

A word of caution. In 2002/03 West Ham were in 19th place, a little adrift. They won 6 and drew 4 of their last 11 games. They were still relegated as other teams around them kept getting results. They went down with 42 points. Such a scenario is not implausible here, the way the teams in the bottom half are picking up results.

Just to show how the relegation battle has picked up:

After 19 games we averaged 0.79 points and were 3 points above the drop zone.

Over the last 7 games we've averaged 1.43 points a game and are only 1 point above the drop zone. Thats not far off double our points average from the first half of the season, only to be closer to the relegation zone in terms of points.