Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate has targeted four wins from his side’s remaining ten games as being the minimum required to ensure their Premier League status for another season.
The Teessiders were swept aside 4-0 in north London by Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday night, although many observers felt that they were slightly unlucky on the night to lose by such a margin, and remain languishing in 19th place in the table.
Things are still tight down in the Premier League basement though, and Southgate thinks that if his men can reach the talismanic total of 40 points then they will be safe.
“I still always think 40 points is a good guideline,” the former England defender told Sky Sports News earlier. ”That means we need four wins, we need to go on our travels and pick up at least a win I would say. We have got to focus on ourselves, there is no point looking at other teams’ fixtures or concerning ourselves with other teams. One or two teams had good results in midweek, but over the course of the week we pulled others a bit closer to us and that will go on indefinitely.”
And Southgate concluded by alluding to the form that Boro had shown in beating Liverpool 2-0 at the Riverside last week.
“We showed ourselves against Liverpool that we can be competitive in any match. There is a hell of a lot of hard work ahead of us but we are up for that challenge,” he said.
Boro turn their attentions to the FA Cup on Sunday, when they travel to Goodison Park to take on high-flying Everton in the quarter-final of the competition, kick-off 16:00 GMT.
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