Everton has regained four points in its latest bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League.

The northwest club’s points deduction for breaching the league’s financial rules has been reduced from 10 to six following an appeal, the competition said Monday.

Everton — an ever-present in England’s top division since 1954 and a nine-time English champion — climbed two places in the standings to 15th, five points above the relegation zone.

The club was found by an independent commission in November last year to have made a loss of 124.5 million pounds ($155 million) over three years up to the end of the 2021-22 season. The league’s profit and financial sustainability rules allow clubs to lose a maximum of 105 million pounds ($130 million) over a three-year period or face sanctions.

Everton was handed a 10-point deduction — the biggest sporting sanction in the Premier League’s 31-year history — that dropped the team into the bottom three and sparked fury among the team’s fans.

Everton launched an appeal against the severity of that decision and, three months later, the Premier League said an appeals board upheld two of the Merseyside club’s nine grounds for that appeal.

That has led to the points deduction being trimmed by four. Luton, which is in third-to-last place and occupies the final relegation spot, is now four points adrift of safety.

Everton said it was pleased that the appeal board “overturned the original commission’s finding that the club failed to act in utmost good faith.”

“That decision, along with reducing the points deduction, was an incredibly important point of principle for the club on appeal,” Everton said. “The club, therefore, feels vindicated in pursuing its appeal.”