It is the biggest league table of the year and it comes out about now.

It is the work of Ben Mayhew, head of data analysis at PA Sport, and has become an annual event.

The Seagulls are 87th in Mayhew’s points-per-game ranking for 2020 of all 92 teams who are currently in the Premier League and EFL.

That includes Barrow and Harrogate, whose results from the National League in the first half of the calendar year are included.

The Seagulls’ lowly position is not a total shock although it is maybe a little alarming just how poorly they fare.

Nor it is it anything new. They were also 87th in 2019, out of 91 clubs.

There is a downturn in terms of wins – five this year compared to eight in 2019.

But points per game actually increased very slightly, from 0.89 in 2019 to 0.91 this year.

Perhaps the nature of Albion’s year is best summed up by the fact they had the highest ratio of draws of all 92 teams at 47.1%.

That came from 16 in 34 matches. Championship sides Birmingham and Millwall each had 17 but from 43 and 41 fixtures respectively.

The good news for Albion is that league positions are, ultimately, not decided on results over a calendar year.

The bad news is that simply hanging up a calendar or opening a new diary will not turn fortunes around.

Graham Potter was asked for his New Year’s resolution as he faced the media yesterday.

Having said it would be to keep improving, he was then pushed on what could be improved.

Potter said: “The answer is quite a lot, as always. That’s the coaching process.

“You get to this point and you have to realise that you have to be brave enough to make mistakes. That’s the biggest challenge.

“There’s a feeling of vulnerability there, of course, and you need a bit of courage.

“But the only way for us to really take the next step is to be brave enough to make those decisions and try those things and make those mistakes because that’s how you improve in life.

“I think when I assess 2020 as a year, on a personal level, I lost my father at the start of the season.

“We went into Covid, lockdown, dealing with that.

“We managed to get the most points that this club has ever had in the Premier League. Lots of young players played in the team.

“Performances, I think, have improved. The problem we’ve got is that the results haven’t quite matched the performances that we feel that we’ve put in and that’s where you have to do your analysis in terms of where the problems are.

“Of course we’re not always going to agree on that.

“The key thing for me is to keep that mentality that I’ve had all my career which is that I haven’t got all the answers.

“I’m not Mr Perfect. You’ve got to try your very best, fight for your team, fight for the players and then learn from whatever happens.”

So how do those under-achieving results look as we end the year?

The five teams below Albion on points-per-game in 2020 are the two Sheffields, Burton, Southend and rock-bottom Stevenage.

In 2019, when Bury’s demise meant only 91 teams were ranked, the Seagulls fared better than only Stoke, Huddersfield, Bolton and Southend.

Albion were 72nd in 2018, their first complete year in the Premier League, with 1.16 points per game.

In 2017, when they secured promotion and then established themselves in the Prem, they averaged 1.45 points per game, 36th in the country.

The promotion near-miss was tough to take at the time.

But hurt was erased by the fact they went up a year later.

That also means fans were given plenty of wins to enjoy throughout 2016, when they had the best points-per-game record in the country at 2.13, leading Chelsea at the top of the rankings.

In turn, that potentially brings up the old question of whether you would rather see your side doing well in a lower division or having to battle hard for points at a higher level.

That is assuming a relegated side does well at the lower level, which is not a given.

For Albion, would supporters rather be where they are now or back in the Championship, winning more games and scoring more goals?

It’s a strange question because the more fun you are having in the Championship, the more likely it is that Prem challenge will come around again.

ALBION HAVE NO PLANS TO SELL KEY PLAYERS

Anyway, we have moved on. Hanging on to a 2-1 lead at MK Dons, scoring a late winner at Burton or beating Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday by a late goal might not seem as much fun now as it was back then.

The bottom line is that you want to be playing that football and scoring those goals in the Premier League.

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To be where they aim to be in the Prem, Albion probably need to be ranked somewhere in the 50s in Mayhew’s mammoth end-of-year table.

Potter says progress may well have been made towards ultimately doing that during two years of 87th place.

But it is not yet underlined in the numbers. There’s the goal for 2021.