West Bromwich Albion may have taken their foot off their gas after hitting the 40-point mark last season, but the most important thing was that they reached that tally in the first place. Aside from the top seven, the primary focus of every top-flight club heading into a new campaign is securing survival as soon as possible, and West Brom booked their spot in the Premier League for 2017/18 much earlier than most.
In truth, it was never really in any doubt. The club's manager, Tony Pulis, has still not been relegated in his entire career in football, with the Welshman having earned a reputation as a survival specialist since he transitioned into coaching in the early 1990s. The former defender was never demoted during his time in the lower leagues with Bournemouth, Gillingham, Bristol City, Portsmouth and Plymouth Argyle, and in 2008/09 he kept Stoke City in the first division following promotion the previous season. Six wins in 10 matches between the beginning of March and the middle of May meant the Potters stayed up rather comfortably in the end: despite a 4-1 defeat by Arsenal on the final day, Stoke ended the campaign 11 points clear of the drop zone in 12th place.
They were not overly troubled by the threat of relegation in the years that followed, either: Pulis' side finished 11th in 2009/10, 13th in 2010/11, 14th in 2011/12 and 13th in 2012/13. By that point, though, many Stoke supporters were keen to see a change of manager, not because Pulis had done a bad job at the Britannia Stadium but rather as a result of the team's style of play. The Potters played direct football throughout the Welshman's time in charge; while that was initially tolerated and even embraced as Stoke consolidated their position in the top tier, it eventually became far less popular with the club's fan base and contributed to Pulis' departure in the summer of 2013.
After a few months out of the game, his next stop came at Crystal Palace, who looked doomed to go down to the Championship after a disastrous start to the season under Ian Holloway. Slowly but surely, however, Pulis began to work his magic and the Eagles ultimately finished in mid-table thanks in large part to five consecutive victories in March and April. The football was at times more thrilling than many had anticipated, but Palace supporters would have accepted any approach given their desperation to avoid an instant return to the Championship.
It was a similar story at West Brom, who Pulis led to safety after joining the club midway through 2014/15. A 14th-place finish in his first full season in charge was followed by last term's top-half placing, which represented the first time the 59-year-old has led a team to 10th spot or above. Yet the entertainment levels, while admittedly an improvement on the 2015/16 season, were still not great, even if the style did tend to bring positive results.
And that, it seems, is the central tension of Pulis: supporters will usually tire of the football after a few years, but he will always be a manager in demand for as long as he continues to guarantee Premier League survival.
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