Premier League survival and the race to 40 points.

Believe it or not the Premier League as we know it started 25 years ago, yep it’s been that long.

Surprise surprise Manchester Utd won the league, Arsenal came tenth, (that actually happened) and Wimbledon didn’t even have a club shirt sponsor, far from the glitz and glamour that we see today.

Within that quarter of a century of exciting, thrilling and sometimes awful football there have been a few changes as well, some good (remember the back pass) and some not so good (how many times have they changed the offside rule?)

In all of the many changes one constant remains, one team wins the title and three teams get relegated (aside from 94/95 where four teams got the chop), yes RELEGATION, the word that keeps multi-millionaire chairman up most nights of the year, the word that every fan across the country prays to God they don’t hear come the end of the season.

RELEGATION. RELEGATION. RELEGATION.

47 teams have played in the Premier League, there have been some surprises over the years, Blackpool, Oldham Athletic, and let’s not pretend we aren’t all shocked Bournemouth are there.

With that in mind, we here at Shoot! have taken a look at how the dreaded drop has developed since the inception of the Premier League…