Luckily for us our poor run of results has not done too much damage, in a lot of seasons we would have probably been in the bottom 3 with a gap to the 4th bottom.
That’s not particularly unusual in the Premier League. Look at the record for teams like Palace and Stoke in previous seasons. If you get a decent gap it can take ages for others to catch up as it’s so rare for sides near the bottom to win even back to back games.