Wigan's win over Newcastle on Sunday saw the gap between Norwich and the relegation zone cut to seven points ahead of their trip to the DW Stadium after the international break.
Hughton insists Norwich - who have lost only once in seven league games, but with five draws - must just concentrate on doing their own job rather than what might happen elsewhere.
Chris Hughton: "We have continually said the 40-point mark is where we want to get to and others have said it might be less, but I think if you start looking at less than that there are too many teams around us and below us.
"I am still adamant that our thought process has to be around that 40 point mark.
"If you think less than that then football has a habit of smacking you in the face.
"We have tough games, four at home and four away. Everybody in this division is fighting for something.
"You see the series of games over the weekend and that was definitely the case, they are all big games.
"We just need to get those points to end up where we feel we deserve to be."
Teams P GD PTS
1 Manchester United 29 38 74 2 Manchester City 29 25 59 3 Chelsea 29 28 55 4 Tottenham Hotspur 30 14 54 5 Arsenal 29 23 50 6 Everton 29 11 48 7 Liverpool 30 18 45 8 West Bromwich Albion 30 2 44 9 Swansea City 30 2 40 10 Fulham 29 -4 36 11 Stoke City 30 -8 34 12 Norwich City 30 -18 34 13 Newcastle United 30 -11 33 14 West Ham United 29 -11 33 15 Sunderland 30 -9 31 16 Southampton 30 -10 31 17 Aston Villa 30 -25 30 18 Wigan Athletic 29 -21 27 19 Reading 30 -22 23 20 Queens Park Rangers 30 -22 23
RELEGATION BATTLE ...
NEWCASTLE
Manchester City (A)Fulham (H)Sunderland (H) WBA (A) Liverpool (H)West Ham Utd (A) QPR (A) Arsenal (H)
SUNDERLAND
Man Utd (H)Chelsea (A)Newcastle (A)Everton (H)Aston Villa (A)Stoke (H)Southampton (H)Tottenham (A)
SOUTHAMPTON
Chelsea (H)Reading (A)West Ham (H)Swansea (A)West Brom (H)Tottenham (A)Sunderland (A)Stoke (H)
ASTON VILLA
Liverpool (H)Stoke (A)Fulham (H)Man Utd (A)Sunderland (H)Norwich (A)Chelsea (H)Wigan (A)
WIGAN
Man City (A)Norwich (H)QPR (A)Swansea (H)West Ham (A)Tottenham (H)West Brom (A)Arsenal (A)Aston Villa (H)
QPR Fulham (A) Wigan Athletic (H) Everton (A) Stoke City (H) Reading (A) Arsenal (H) Newcastle Utd (H) Liverpool (A)
READING
Arsenal (A)Southampton (H)Liverpool (H)Norwich (A)QPR (H)Fulham (A)Man City (H)West Ham (A)
Source: Newcastle United Mad
Source: FOOTYMAD
