CHRIS Mepham admits he is "not surprised at all" to see former Brentford team-mate Neal Maupay join him in the Premier League as the pair prepare to do battle tomorrow.

Centre-back Mepham left the Bees to join Cherries in a £12million deal in January, while striker Maupay switched from west London to Brighton in the summer for a fee believed to be £16million. The pair started 28 matches alongside each other at Brentford.

The 23-year-old has already netted seven goals for the Seagulls, including three in the past month and is likely to line up against Cherries at the Amex tomorrow (12.30pm).

And Mepham believes the Frenchman’s tenacity earned him a move to the top flight.

“I think he’s always really physical,” Mepham told the Daily Echo when discussing the Brighton forward.

“He looks to put himself about and he’s an aggressive, tenacious player which is probably the reason why he’s got where he is now.

“I know what to expect from him, but hopefully we can counteract their strengths with playing really well and hopefully get the result.”

Asked if he had expected Maupay to make the step up, Mepham added: “I’m not surprised at all.

“You see him every day in the training ground and every training session is like a game for him.

“He always takes pride in winning and he’s got a really good mentality every day on the training pitch, which he takes into the games and obviously he’s taken to this level really well, scoring a few goals already.

“So he’s got a lot of strengths as a player and he’s still fairly young, so I’m not surprised at all that he’s made the step up and taken to it really well.”

Mepham is expected to keep his spot for the clash with Brighton having started in each of the past five matches, including yesterday’s draw with Arsenal.

And with no fixtures against any of the league’s current top five until February, the Wales international has his eyes on a push up the table, with Cherries currently 16th.

Mepham said: “I think we’ve had a tough run of games.

“There’s never an easy run of games but if you look at the games we’ve got coming up, it’s definitely a real good opportunity for us to put some points on the table and hopefully start creeping up the table.

“But there’s no easy games in this league. We’ve got to make sure we approach every game with the same mentality that we need to get the three points.”

He added: “We’ve got to take the positives that we can match any team in this league.

“We won away to Chelsea, beat (Manchester) United at home, drew against Arsenal and probably could’ve won.

“So I think we’ve got to take confidence, but we’ve also got to start picking points up from the teams that are around us because they’re the ones that really matter.

“It’s really tight down the bottom and in the middle part of the table.”