Can a high scoring Championship side do well in the Premier League?

This is perhaps the question that has dominated some of Eddie Howe's thoughts over the summer. While 98 goals in the Championship was fantastic, it is much more difficult to score against better defences in the Premier League and AFCB's summer recruitment seems to have been directed mainly towards ensuring that the team has the strength on the wings to take games to opponents in this toughest of leagues.

While Christian Atsu and Joshua King will be vying for starting positions they will have to be on the top of their games to shift Marc Pugh and Matt Ritchie, while Max Gradel is also being lined up as a potential signing and another wide player. Variety in how the Cherries' attack is I believe what Eddie Howe is looking for. While the trickery of Marc Pugh and the timing of Matt Ritchie's runs into the box worked extremely well in the Championship it may be that he feels more power is required to go at defences at times in the Premier League. We have seen that King, who can also play as an out and out striker, has pace to burn and can go very direct in his play and Atsu and Gradel are also players that can take on players with their individual skill.

Callum Wilson will be ready to spearhead the attack for AFCB.

Mixed with the attacking players that AFCB already have in Wilson, Kermorgant, Stanislas and Rantie, there is a richness of goals about the team one would hope. But AFCB will have to defend better than they have done before as well. But it's goals in the for column that are particularly essential. If the strikers struggle to penetrate Premier League defences then there would be little hope in staying up.

Looking at the teams that struggled last season, Burnley and Hull City simply did not have enough fire power and not even Charlie Austin's goals were enough for QPR. Even Aston Villa, Newcastle Utd and Sunderland were among the goal shy teams of the division and that was probably a major part of why they were down in the bottom third of the table.

With so many attacking players brought in to AFCB though it may mean less room in the squad for so many central midfield players or strikers, and we may see some of those who were in and out of the team last year just miss out on a place in the 25, but that probably depends on any further signings. I suspect that there is room for six or seven signings this summer. With the goalkeeper position already strengthened and three outfield players signed (Sylvain Distin is expected to complete his transfer today) it would not leave much more room for signings, unless we start seeing some more outgoing transfers. 

PremierTalk has a new article that points to the news that Liverpool will have a bit of Bournemouth in their ranks
 
Cherry Chimes' July Newsletter is out today. It brings you the best stories on the blog and the thoughts behind them over the last month, plus a special Newsletter article entitled:
Are Cherries Premier League savvy?

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