West Brom boss Tony Pulis defends 40 point record

Over the past nine seasons, the Welshman has only won six of the 45 games he has been in charge of after hitting that marker, picking up a total of 35 points across those games for Stoke, Crystal Palace and Albion.

After reaching the tally that traditionally guarantees survival his points-per-match tally falls below its usual rate, his teams score fewer goals per game, and they concede more too.

But Pulis, whose post 40-point record in his one season at Palace is respectable, says he delivered far more important achievements at Stoke and has moved the Baggies on without spending much money.

“When I was at Stoke,” said Pulis. “If you had asked the Stokies would they prefer us to finish in top 10 or get to an FA Cup final and the last 32 of the Europa League, then I think they would have gone for the second two.

“At this club, I was disappointed with the five games last year, we’ve had 10 games this year.

“But the great thing about this year is we’ve never been anywhere near a relegation fight.

“The club has moved on and moved on without it costing a lot of money.

“The club has pushed on. What we’ve got to do is make sure we push on again next year.”

Last season, Albion lost three and drew three after reaching 40 points, and ended the season on a nine-game winless run.

Pulis reached 40 points earlier than ever this season, but the Baggies have only won one game out of 11 since then, losing eight. They’ve also failed to score in eight of those fixtures.

Pulis says hasn’t changed his approach to training, but does think he needs more options up front than just two strikers.

“I think we've done what we've been doing all season,” he said. “The problem we've got is we haven't been taking our chances.

“We’ve lost four games 1-0 when we’ve had really good chances. There is that little bit of quality needed at the top end of the pitch and if one isn’t doing it you need someone else to do it, like when we had a good run.”