Mathematical safety in EPL

gers1978

Well-Known Member
We often hear 40 points makes you safe, but it's not guaranteed, West Ham once got relegated with over 40 points I think.

Got me wondering, is there an actual minimum amount of points that would mathematically guarantee safety in any season (no matter how unlikely scenario would be to actually happen)?

What about the flip side; the maximum amount of points that would still guarantee relegation?

Boredwithoutrangers.com :))
 
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Basel is correct. Four teams draw all their games against each other and lose to everyone else. All finish on 6 points and one stays up on goal difference.
...yes. Should have known better.
I've done that calculation for champions league several times and took the piss out folk who didn't get it.
I blame Sunday mornings.
 
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Very minimum would be 6 and stay up on whatever the last dividing factor is within the rules of that league.
 
I don't think there is a minimum. The folk saying 6 points are correct only if you make the assumption that no teams suffer a points deduction. Since the rules for most leagues include the deduction of points for some offences, I don't think a minimum number of points can be determined?
 
There isn't really a minimum. What they are looking for is the highest lowest tally that guarantees relegation. You could still stay up with 0 if three teams go bust. I think 5 is the value we are looking for if we exclude all these wrinkles.
 
I thought it would be 57 - 3*19 = every team winning every home match and losing every away match - but going down on goal difference

You might be right, the 58 coming from the fact that 57 wouldn’t mathematically guarantee it as you couldn’t predict the goal difference, hence one extra point needed to guarantee it, therefore 58
 
There isn't really a minimum. What they are looking for is the highest lowest tally that guarantees relegation. You could still stay up with 0 if three teams go bust. I think 5 is the value we are looking for if we exclude all these wrinkles.

Or you could stay up with a negative total - isn't there a 10 point penalty for going into admin in the EPL? 4 teams go into admin in the same season, one of them is staying up.

EDIT: emphasised part of quote I'm responding to, and corrected a mistake in my reply.
 
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Arithmetic is about numbers: maths is about theory.
Definition of mathematics

: the science of numbers and their operations interrelations, combinations, generalizations, and abstractions and of space, configurations and their structure, measurement, transformations, and generalizations
Algebra, arithmetic, calculus, geometry, and trigonometry are branches of mathematics.
 
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