Eddie Howe: Bournemouth are ready for the Premier League

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe says his team are ready for their first ever Premier League season, adding that he will not abandon the attacking tactics that saw them win the Championship last year.

Bournemouth kick off thier first top-flight campaign in their 116-year history at home to Aston Villa on 8 August, following three promotions in six years. The club was on the brink of relegation out of the Football League in 2009, before former player Howe took charge, with the team 10 points adrift at the bottom of League Two.

Bournemouth beat Grimsby Town on the final day of the 2008-09 season to rescue themselves and stay in the league, before going on an extraordinary run of promotions that culminated in their rise to the Premier League in May. Howe says his team are keen to get going.

"We are very keen to get going. We have done a lot of talking since those fantastic days for the club.We have been working hard towards this moment during pre-season, so it has been very intense work. We feel the team is ready, so now we just have to go out and prove we are good enough," he said at a news conference ahead of the new season.

Howe has been widely applauded for his exciting, attacking brand of football, and Howe says his boys still want to play with the same ethos in the Premier League.

"I am not saying we are going to score 98 goals," joked Howe.

"But we are certainly going to go at it the same way, in terms of how we approach the games. We are going to be brave, and we are going to try and take games to teams. I think that is our way, I think that is what we have become accustomed to, that is what our players expect us to do, and to veer away from that format I think would be foolish, on the back of all the success we have had. We know it is going to be tough, we know it is going to be harder, we know there may be some bumps in the road for us, but I think we are prepared for that."