AFC Bournemouth are the certified feel-good story of the season. Six years ago they were in League Two, facing financial difficulties that threatened to wipe them off the face of the planet, and now, in 2015, they're a Premier League club.Along the way they've spent prudently, hired a brilliant young manager in Eddie Howe and poured their trust into his methods, and produced some exhilarating, jaw-dropping football at times.Howe allies himself to the training methods of Pep Guardiola and Co., utilising a variant of Juego de Posicionan attacking concept in which the pitch is gridded off into zonesto teach where players should be in the relation to the ball at all times. It's ingrained into the club; it's a way of life, not just a way of playing.This attractive, possession-based footballing strand wins fans with ease, and for that reason, Bournemouth are likely to be everyone's second team this season. The neutrals will will them on; they're the little train that could, except now they're a well-oiled machine who belong in the big time.With a rich history of Bournemouth tape under Howe to pick from, in addition to their Premier League debut last Saturday against Aston Villa, let's take at examining the bones of their game and ask the multi-million pound question: Can they stay up'1. Possession StakesIt should come as no surprise that Bournemouth topped the possession charts for the Championship in 2014-15, averaging 58.2 percent of the ball, per WhoScored.com. They were also top of the pass-success charts, totalling 79.5 percent, and had the most shots per game (16.7) of any side in the division.Poor teams who attempt ball monopolisation often end up with high figures for possession and accuracy, but trade goal attempts for short passing success. It's not often the three are married; it's the sign of a side who know what they're doing, and they're doing it well.AFCB use numerical domination in midfield to ensure they assert control over the central zones; the central two are extremely comfortable on the ball under pressure, and they're able to feed it forward or wide as the full-backs creep forward or the attacking midfielders drop back.Passing lanes are essentially angles, and the way the Cherries' 4-4-1-1 formation melds on the ball to create avenues to move the ball forward is extremely well practised. This is whereJuego de Posicion comes into play: Players innately know which position to take up when their teammate has the ball, or, critically, where they can move to to form triangles but not risk the structural integrity of the shape.IntoPress'Premier League launch magazine noted Guardiola has training pitches in Munich with a grid painted on, while Spielverlagerungreveal Roger Schmidt of Bayer Leverkusen's version in person. This method is a core philosophy for Howe and Bournemouth; it's the lifeblood of their approach.2. Switch to Ritch(ie)AFC Bournemouth's primary mode of attack hasn't changed. Their ability to switch play effectively preceded them into the Premier League, and Howe instructed more of the same on the opening afternoon against Villa.The Cherries' approach play and passing is excellent, but they create their real danger when they utilise quick switches over to Matt Ritchie on the wing. The Scot registered 15 goals and 17 assists in league play last season, per WhoScored.com, and AFCB set about feeding him the ball whenever possible at the Vitality Stadium last Saturday.The pattern is for Bournemouth to build play on the left, nudging the opposition's midfield selection over to one side, while keeping Ritchie near touchline-wide on the far flank. That engineers a true one-on-one situation for the winger to attack, and in the Championship especially, no one came close to nullifying him in that position.Ritchie picks his spot deliberately; he allows himself time and space to receive a lofted pass, usually by Andrew Surman, but also green grass to run into beyond the full-back. He came up against Jordan Amavi last weekenda player who Villa will likely end up paying 15 million for when the add-ons are activatedand hejust about kept a lid on him during the first 45 minutes. Some desperate blocks and tackles were required.Teams will have to become cognizant of how to deal with Ritchie, and there are two ways of going about it. First, the left-winger may need to commit to a very defensive, imbalanced role off the ball to help cone the Scot off and help his left-back. Second, extreme midfield pressure to shut off Surman's time and space is a must. Villa played without a No. 10 last weekend and couldn't get close enough to shut down the switch balla lesson every Premier League club should heed.Ritchie brings down lofted passes with great touch, setting himself for immediate release. The reason he's so effective is because he doesn't dither or linger; inside three seconds of cushioning it out of the sky he's already played in a runner or swept infield.Joshua King and Callum Wilson, playing just off one another in the 4-4-1-1 on Saturday, ran the channel inside Amavi (LB) and Ciaran Clark (LCB) constantly. A quick ball down the side and, in around five seconds, AFCB have gone from harmless position deep left to a crossing position on the right side of the box.3. RecoveryAFC Bournemouth's effort to recover the ball quickly is impressive. They're perhaps not the archetypal pressing team, like Barcelona were under Guardiola, but there's a part-commitment to it at least.The first 45 minutes against Villa were relentless; they didn't give Tim Sherwood's men a single second to think. It was one hell of an induction for the likes of Jordan Ayew, Jordan Veretout, Idrissa Gueye and Amavi, and arguably too much of a challenge for the technically limited Gabby Agbonlahor.Gueye, who is accustomed to driving out from deep areas with the ball at his feet and out-muscling markers, struggled to get going. He ended up spending his energy swatting them away or trying to win free-kicks for reprieve, and Veretout barely made an impression. Agbonlahor completedone pass in the first half.The Cherries have mastered the art of blocking off passing lanes; they're as adept at creating them on the ball as they are at closing them off it. Multiple times Villa players were forced to play a more hopeful, direct pass to start an attackparticularly from the right- and left-back positionsbecause all avenues were clogged.An ideal passage of play sees Bournemouth hound the opposition into passing wide to their full-back, blocking off all lanes, forcing a hopeful punt, winning the first/second ball and restarting from the back, looking to engineer the switch to Ritchie where possible.The relentlessness and sheer level of control they exert in everything they do is remarkable, and it visibly mentally drains opposing sides.4. Cutting EdgeOf course, none of this matters without cutting edge, and that's where AFCB fell down last weekend. If you didn't catch the score against Villa but have been reading this you'd had assumed they won, but they didn't. They lost 1-0.After blowing three huge chances in the first half (including a missed one-on-one from Callum Wilson), Villa settled, dug their feet in and brought on a game-changer in Rudy Gestede. His header from a corner was enough to haul three points back to the Midlands, leaving the Vitality Stadium mildly deflated at what they'd just witnessed.Cliches exist for a reason, and this game was the very embodiment of the phrase "you've got to take your chancesat this level." Their 16.7 shots per game quickly became 11 in the Premier League, and this was against one of the division's middling-to-lower-level defences, not the best.Wilson is a good, strong player capable of leading a line on his own, and King can fill in for him or just off him, using his bulk to good effect too. The hope is that Max Gradel, scorer of 17 Ligue 1 goals last season for a good Saint-Etienne side, can return to the south coast and do the damage in the Premier League.One of the threehas to assume the mantle; Bournemouth cannot stay up, despite their pretty football and impressive technical play, without burying the ball in the net at this level. Again, it sounds obvious, but this is why promoted clubs' most important signings are often in the striker position.Villa nailed it with Christian Benteke, who near-single-handedly kept them up for three seasons straight. In 2013, Steve Bruce signed Yannick Sagbo for Hull City, telling theMirror that he hoped he'd emulate the Belgian. Currently, the Tigers are in the Championship and Sagbo is a free agent.That underlines the difference it can make. Howe will be confident his team can find the net regularly and that Gradel, who cost around 7 million, can spearhead the survival charge.If Gradel catches fire and Wilson supplements him, the Cherries will be a Premier League team come 2016-17. If not, well...Follow @stighefootball
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