How many points are needed to win the Championship?

As we reach the business end of the Championship, supporters at either end of the table begin checking their current points total with increasing regularity. However, this season, the club presently at the top of the tree can already start planning their promotion party, such has been their dominance of the division. Burnley have been by far and away the best side in the Championship. Led by Vincent Kompany, the Clarets invested shrewdly in the transfer window and also kept hold of some key players following relegation from the Premier League last season.

Burnley have accumulated a huge gap between them and the chasing pack and the question on everyone's mind now is, how many more points do they need to not only secure promotion, but also the Championship title? We do our best to answer that question by taking a look the average points required based on previous seasons.

When taking into account the points totals of the automatically promoted clubs in the second tier from 1995-96 to 2021-22, the average number of points required to secure automatic promotion is between 87 and 88 points. As it stands, Burnley have already racked up 73 points in just 33 fixtures (at the time of writing), which means that five more wins from their remaining 13 matches would more than likely be enough to seal an immediate return to the Premier League.

However, the Clarets almost certainly won't be focused on that and will instead be eying up the league title. With an average of 94 points usually enough to win the Championship, Burnley would require just 21 more points to reach that threshold. It also wouldn't be a surprise considering their recent brilliant run, if Kompany's men are looking to break the all-time Championship points record set by Reading, who accrued a whopping 106 points in their 2005-06 title win. To achieve that, Burnley need another 34 points from a possible 39 (11 wins and one draw from 13 games, a big ask even for them and one which puts into perspective the magnitude of Reading's achievement under Steve Coppell).