Bournemouth AFC are promoted to the Premier League. Can they stay up?

This is the second promotion in three years for Bournemouth, who finished second in League One in the 2012-13 season. Last year, they stayed up comfortably and were on the fringes of the playoffs, finishing 10th. The club has managed to get from financial ruin to the Premier League in just seven seasons -- they were deducted 17 points to start the 2008-09 League Two season and barely stayed up. The following season, they were promoted to League One. If Bournemouth don’t pass Watford on the final day, this will be the third successive time that they went up without winning the league.

Bournemouth have gone up playing arguably the best football in the Championship. They lead the league with 95 goals and only one team, Boro, has a better defensive record. Their plus-50 goal differential is 10 goals better than any team had in the league last season.

As good as Bournemouth have been, there are a few questions about whether they can continue to play this way in the top flight. Their leading scorer and the division’s joint third-leading scorer, Callum Wilson, has a very Championship look to him. He has the pace, intelligence and technical quality to succeed at the next level, but he’s certainly not elite in any category. Despite his fantastic goal return, he misses the occasional sitter. Chances are, he’ll find it a lot harder to score in a division where the defenders are better in every way, heavy first touches will be punished and the passes to him need to be crisper. Also, second-leading scorer Yann Kermorgant is 33, and it’s unlikely he takes up a starring role in the Premier League.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that their midfield and defense have a handful of undoubtedly Premier League quality players, starting with winger Matt Ritchie. He was named to the Championship team of the season, and he’s arguably the top player in the division. He’s just as good at creating for teammates with one-twos and through balls as he is at cutting in onto his left foot and scoring from the right, and holding on to him will be massive for Bournemouth if they want to stay up next season. Right back Simon Francis is also in the team of the season, while central defender Steve Cook has been a monster on set pieces, scoring five goals. Harry Arter has eight goals from midfield, and he’s recently been called up to the Ireland senior side.

But as good as Bournemouth’s players are, the star of the show is manager Eddie Howe, who played for the club for 11 seasons over two spells before being named manager shortly after his retirement. The now 37-year-old kept Bournemouth in League Two, then brought them up, before being poached by Burnley. After a season-and-a-half there, he rejoined his old team, and he’s brought them the greatest period of success in their history.

Though Howe has closer ties to his club than most managers, it’s likely that he would have been poached away again -- this time by a Premier League club -- if Bournemouth didn’t go up. He’s got a small-budget team playing very stylishly, though he’ll have to adapt in the top flight. Bournemouth didn’t exactly change tactics when they met Aston Villa and Liverpool in cups, and it cost them. They did, however, defeat a heavily rotated West Brom team in the League Cup.

Bournemouth will enter the Premier League in a similar situation to Burnley. They’re a low-budget team playing better football than they have any business playing, with a hotshot young manager and a star player they’ll struggle to keep bigger teams from poaching. They’re even the same in that their second-best player is their right back.

Burnley are currently bottom, about to go down despite hanging on to Danny Ings, Kieran Trippier and Sean Dyche. Can Howe, Ritchie, Francis and Co. fare better?