Staying in the Premier League is tough!!

Barring a mathematical earthquake, we're about to secure Premier League status for the 4th consecutive year. We will soon be able to say that we survived our 3rd season in the tough, unforgiving environment of the top flight of English football. An extraordinary accomplishment for a club that was a few moments away from extinction less than a quarter of a century ago.

Quite how extraordinary and quite how tough? Well, get your head around these stats, which only serve to emphasize the phenomenal work done by everybody at the Club in ensuring survival in these difficult, early Premier League years.

- If Aston Villa are relegated this term, it will mean that 50% of teams promoted from the Championship since 2009/10 will have been sent straight back down within 2 years.

- At least 1 of the promoted teams has gone back down in 9 out of the past 10 years (including Norwich who are already relegated this year). The exception, interestingly, was in the year the Albion were promoted. Huddersfield were relegated after 2 years.

- Only 6 current top flight teams have been perennial Premier League participants (and Manchester City are not one of them!!) since the rebranding in 1992.

The key question for Graham and the team is whether the foundation that Tony Bloom, Paul Barber et al have established, is strong enough to ensure that we will survive in the top flight for longer than the 4 years achieved by the Mullery/Bailey/Melia teams of the late 70's and early 80's.

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