The race for the play-offs continues in the Premier League Darts event on Thursday evening when the eight players are back for the penultimate night of the behind closed doors setup at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
The table is really beginning to take shape now and those inside the top four are just beginning to look like they might pull away from the stragglers. You get the impression this could be a defining evening the way the fixtures have fallen.
Nathan Aspinall vs Dimitri Van den Bergh
Two of the top three players in the competition meet to begin the night when the current pacesetter Nathan Aspinall meets the only man to have beaten him so far in this campaign in the form of Dimitri Van den Bergh.
These two enjoyed different evenings on Wednesday. Aspinall didn’t play anything like his best stuff but came away with a win over Peter Wright whereas Van den Bergh played some excellent darts and couldn’t get anywhere near Michael van Gerwen. A repeat of those efforts would have Van den Bergh looking handy here but there have been a couple of occasions he has nicked a win, including when he beat Aspinall, and I wonder if that will catch up with him again here. I wouldn’t necessarily oppose Van den Bergh but something somewhere is telling me not to back him.
James Wade vs Jose de Sousa
The second match of the night sees a surging Jose de Sousa looking for another two points when he takes on James Wade in a clash which sees the two men immediately below the top four battling it out in a potentially crunch showdown.
These two picked up opposite results on Wednesday evening. Wade was perfect in the finishing department but couldn’t find a treble at times and went down to Jonny Clayton while Jose de Sousa took advantage of a pretty ordinary Gary Anderson to pick up another two points. You sense this match will all be about the finishing ability of de Sousa. He is highly likely to outscore Wade for large parts of this match so if he hits his doubles at 50% like he did against Anderson he will be tough to stop. De Sousa won the Grand Slam final between these two last season and the reverse fixture in this competition. I think he can complete the hat trick in this one.
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Gary Anderson vs Peter Wright
The penultimate match of the evening is the one which sees the two Scottish players colliding in a clash where the bottom two in the table collide as Gary Anderson takes on Peter Wright in a contest neither can afford to lose.
Anderson was pretty ordinary on Wednesday evening and has made a big thing about the fact he hadn’t practiced since the last set of Premier League nights which suggests he might not be as serious about the rest of the season as he should be. Wright wasn’t much better against Aspinall and while I think he has the better performance in him, his record in this tournament is starting to flatter to deceive so in truth I don’t really want to back either to come out on top here.
Michael van Gerwen vs Jonny Clayton
The final match of the night might just prove to be the best one of the evening as two men who were in sensational form on Wednesday collide as Michael van Gerwen takes on Jonny Clayton with both men looking to cement their position in the top four.
Both these players averaged over 105 on Wednesday so the man who is able to maintain his form for a second day could be the one to come out on top. You would usually expect that player to be van Gerwen but so far in this competition each time he has put in a brilliant performance he has followed it up with a shabby one. Clayton had a bit of a wobble in the second week of Premier League matches but in the main he has been solid and consistent. I fancy Clayton in this one but van Gerwen is in the middle of a patch where he’s brilliant when I oppose him and terrible when I back him so I’ll take the hint and sit this one out.
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