Chebyshev inequality states that, for a random variable of finite variance and any ,
Let count triangles, where ranges over the three-element vertex sets and is the corresponding indicator random variable. Then
Two distinct triangle indicators are independent unless their triangles share an edge. There are
unordered pairs sharing an edge, and each covariance is
Therefore
It follows that
when . Chebyshev's inequality now gives
Hence
as summarized by the triangle count in a binomial random graph.
Let count copies of the complete graph in . Its expected value is
Write as a sum of indicator random variable. Indicators for two distinct copies are independent when the copies share at most one vertex, since their edge sets are then disjoint. Pairs sharing two vertices have eleven edges in their union, while pairs sharing three have nine. It follows that
Thus . By the second moment method, in probability, so . This is the sparse clique-count concentration estimate.