Ghana’s talented winger Christian Atsu will begin his English Premier League career with newly-promoted Bournemouth when they host Aston Villa in early August.

The Cherries will kick off their maiden Premier League campaign against Aston Villa at the Goldsands Stadium and the on-loan Ghana star is expected to play in the match.

Bournemouth, who won the Championship title, host Aston Villa in their first ever Premier League game before tough away trips to Liverpool and West Ham.

Atsu who is on loan from Chelsea, is expected to play a key role for the Cherries, whose key ambition for their first Premier League appearance is to beat the drop.

There will be a dream-like quality to the occasion when Bournemouth play Aston Villa in an eminently-winnable opening game at Dean Court on August 8.

The ground is small, but the atmosphere will be exultant.

Ghanaian football fans will be following his exploits religiously as his previous loan stint with Everton ended in frustration in the just-ended season because of lack of playing time.

Despite this setback, Atsu went on to excel at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations where he was named the best player of the tournament despite the presence of big stars like Man City’s Yaya Toure.

Eddie Howe’s side face a daunting end to the year, with clashes against Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in December.

Football may reflect an elitist age, but there is something wonderfully democratic about the progress of a club which, only six years ago, was 92nd out of 92 in the top four tiers of the professional game.

Their first away match, at Liverpool, has the perfect sub-plot of a battle of wits between the last two LMA Managers of the year, Brendan Rodgers and Eddie Howe.

There have been two occasions since the Premier League’s inaugural season in 1992-93 when all three promoted clubs have stayed up.

Blackburn (10th), Fulham (13th) and Bolton (16th) managed it in 2001-02. Then Swansea (11th), Norwich (12th) and QPR (17th) repeated the feat in 2011-12.

And there’s only one occasion when all three promoted teams went straight back down. That was in 1997-98, when Bolton (18th), Barnsley (19th) and Crystal Palace (20th) were all relegated.