09/10 West Ham stayed up with 35, but not since then has a team stayed in the league with less than 36.
I think that Cardiff and one other (Huddersfield imo) will be well adrift of the rest which will imply that it'll require closer to 40 to stay up than the usual 36.
7 below 40 in 2014;
14 Sunderland 38
15 Aston Villa 38
16 Hull City 37
17 West Bromwich Albion 36
18 Norwich City (R) 33
19 Fulham (R) 32
20 Cardiff City (R) 30
But apart from that, there isn't much in the last 18 years of the PL. And Cardiff can't get 26 and there be 9 teams, as at least...
IMO the worst 3 teams in the league on paper are;
Cardiff
Huddersfield
Southampton
Newcastle have a good manager, West Ham have squad depth and will string a run together, and now Burnley have been knocked out of Europe (thought they would really struggle if they got through to the group...