With 36 games of this latest Premier League campaign now gone, the big question is not who will win the title....but how Middlesbrough still find themselves in danger of relegation?

Boss Gareth Southgate must have bruises all over his forehead by now as I imagine he has probably banged it against the wall on numerous occasions even before a ball was kicked this season.

Mark Viduka's defection to Newcastle for a big juicy pay packet was quickly followed by his strike partner Yakubu being offloaded to Everton after doing an impression of a cardboard cut-out on the pitch in the first two games of the season. That was 30 goals from the previous campaign already missing from the line-up.

That left Boro relying on summer signings Tuncay Sanli - who had never played in England until August - an unproven Jeremie Aliadiere and a very suspect Dong-Gook Lee. A £6million swoop for Mido from Tottenham helped swell the striker options but he was not even fit following a summer of virtual inactivity.

In defence star man Jonathan Woodgate and his trusty partner Emanuel Pogatetz were both missing due to injury and Southgate was relying on youngster David Wheater to keep out the Premier League's marksmen.

It was no surprise that Boro struggled for the first half of the season and were set to be embroiled in a battle to beat the drop as the sat in 18^th position following an encouraging 1-1 draw at Reading on December 1.

That was the match that showed the signs things could turn around and the birth of Jekyll and Hyde Boro came about!

In December with Pogatetz back and Wheater showing England form a brilliant Boro inflicted top-of-the-table Arsenal's first defeat of the season on them with a stunning display in a 2-1 victory at the Riverside, secured a comfortable 1-0 win at bottom-of-the-table Derby, and won 1-0 at Portsmouth, who have aspirations of European qualification.

Sandwiched between those wins there were a Riverside defeat against a mid-table West Ham and a Boxing Day 3-0 battering at fellow strugglers Birmingham.

December basically summed up the second-half of the season as Boro turned on the style against the big clubs and either struggled to beat the lesser sides or actually lost to them.

Attractive, flowing, passing football was witnessed one week as Boro ground out a home draw against the likes of Liverpool, while relegation candidates Reading turned up and stole the three points against a nervous and toothless-looking outfit.

Even home wins against doomed Derby, Fulham and Wigan were far from convincing as Boro clung on to pick up the vital three points, before they went to high-flying Aston Villa and picked up another draw but should have won.

Another draw at Arsenal - where Boro again should have won - was secured while Tuncay, Aliadiere and record January signing Afonso Alves were starting to settle in and show what they could do in attack.

Moving into April and again four matches that have highlighted everything that is wrong at Boro. A fantastic performance against title favourites Manchester United at the Riverside with two goals from Afonso Alves guiding them to a 2-2 draw was then followed by a creditable 1-1 draw at Tottenham as Boro wrecked a fair few football betting coupons.

A home win against Bolton would guarantee Premier League football for another season. But again Boro slipped into their bad old ways and crashed to a frustrating 1-0 defeat.

Another chance for safety came at Sunderland in the Wear-Tees derby and, despite scoring an early goal; Boro capitulated and eventually lost out to a last-gasp effort in a 3-2 defeat.

There we have it then just four points clear of danger with two home games - against Portsmouth and Manchester City to come - and six points left to play for when safety should have been assured weeks ago!

The big question worried fans are wondering is which side will turn up for those games?

The side Sky Sports pundit Alan McInally described recently as one of the best footballing outfits outside of the top four? Or as fellow pundit Charlie Nicholas described, the 'fakers' who get rolled over by the Premier League lesser lights?

Fortunately both Pompey and City are higher up the table so hopefully the players will adopt their 'underdog' heads and turn on the style as they have done on numerous occasions this season.

However the frustration for the fans is why does it take better opposition to get Boro's players to do the business on the pitch? Is it complacency against the lesser teams, or are they just lazy and can only get motivated for playing against the big guns?

Is Southgate and his coaching staff to blame? Surely a manager should be able to motivate his players for every game and not have to wait for them to be totally written off before they pull their fingers out?

Whatever the answer to his great mystery let us hope we do not have to spend a few seasons in the Championship before we put our fingers on it.