It is a couple of months later than we are used to but the Premier League Darts season gets underway on Monday evening when once again 10 hopefuls embark on a campaign they hope will end in glory next month.
Glen Durrant won the biggest title of his PDC career in the heavily delayed 2020 version last year and he has been invited into the field to attempt to defend the title. A pretty strong field goes up against him in what should be a decent season.
Recent Winners
2020 – Glen Durrant
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Gary Anderson
2014 – Raymond van Barneveld
2013 – Michael van Gerwen
2012 – Phil Taylor
2011 – Gary Anderson
The Format
The big news this season is that the ‘Contenders’ idea has been dumped and we have a 10 man field. They will each play each other once over the first nine nights of the season, all of which are played in blocks rather than one per week, and also behind closed doors. The ninth night is ‘Judgement Night’ where the bottom two in the league table will be eliminated from the competition.
After that the eight men will play each other for a second time with the top four at the end of the regular campaign heading to Finals Night, where the two semi-finals and final will be played out. All regular season matches will be the best of 12 legs. The format increases to the best of 19 for the semi-finals and then up again to the best of 21 to crown our champion in May.
The Field
As ever the top four in the PDC Order of Merit qualified for this tournament by right which means that the world champion Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright and Rob Cross knew that they were going to make it into the tournament. The other six players were all invited in as wildcards either through their world ranking or because they won a TV tournament over the last year so this is a really stacked line up.
The remaining six players are the beaten finalist of 2020 in Nathan Aspinall, the world finalist from earlier in the year in Gary Anderson, the World Matchplay winner in Dimitri Van den Bergh, one of three debutants in the field this year, the defending champion Glen Durrant, Grand Slam of Darts winner Jose de Sousa and The Masters champion Jonny Clayton, the latter two of whom are the remaining debutants.
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Market Leaders
Michael van Gerwen is nothing like the prolific winner that he once was but he is still the favourite to win the title at 5/2. He certainly knows how to win this one having won it five times, including four years in succession prior to last year, but a sign of his invincibility waning is the fact that he never even made the play-offs last year. He won the Players Championship Finals at the end of last year but then struggled through the World Championship before Dave Chisnall emphatically dumped him out. In a tournament which doesn’t finish for two months and which you only need to be consistent until the last night then turn it on you can’t rule the Dutchman out but he’s no longer the short price attraction he once was.
The world champion Gerwyn Price is the second favourite to win this tournament at 11/4. It is one of the few pieces of missing silverware on his CV but in truth he has never come close to winning the event. This will be his fourth Premier League campaign and he is yet to be around for finals night so that has to be his first objective this season before he considers anything else. Price had a good run at the UK Open but came up a little short which seems to be a thing for him since he won the world title. He’s more than capable of winning this but his form in this event suggests there’s something about it that he doesn’t enjoy. He is tentatively not for me.
Peter Wright has never got his hands on this trophy but the good lord only knows how that is the case after he seemingly had it won a couple of years ago only to choke at the winning double. He’s been the world champion since then and although his start to the season was quiet after a very surprise early exit in the World Championship, he has come to life the longer the year has gone on and if he applies that improvement throughout the two months of this event you sense the 5/1 shot will be tough to beat. He’s probably the best value of the front three in the betting.
Jonny Clayton has improved beyond belief in the last 12 months or so and while this is his debut Premier League campaign, the man who is probably the most in form player on the planet right now was a ‘Contender’ last year so he has had a taste of what it all means. That was when crowds were allowed in so he’s had the full Premier League experience which he is unlikely to get this year unless something dramatic happens with the UK route out of the Covid-19 pandemic. There used to be a time when you’d give debutants no chance in this but both finalists were making their debut last season. 12/1 looks a massive price.
Outright Betting
Maintaining form for a long period of time is never an easy thing and that would be the concern for Jonny Clayton but we shouldn’t forget that you don’t have to be brilliant for every night of this competition, you just have to pick enough wins up to make the top four and then peak on finals night. Clayton can beat anyone in this field. He showed that when he won The Masters and he has kicked on with a couple of Super Series titles since then too.
There is an open feel to this tournament this year with the likes of van Gerwen, Price, Wright and Gary Anderson definitely respected while you can never rule out a man who is defending a title which is Glen Durrant. Even Jose de Sousa is a class act so this is going to take plenty of winning but with Clayton getting more and more comfortable on the big stages and winning on them a lot more often I think he is the value in this field.
Relegation
While five or six always spread the field and fight it out for the top four places there will be two, three or four players who will battle hard to avoid relegation at the halfway mark of the season. Last year we lost Rob Cross and he is one of the players expected to be fighting for survival again this season, surprisingly along with the man who won the event last term in Glen Durrant. The other one of the favoured trio for the drop is Nathan Aspinall and I actually think he’ll fall into the trap door this year.
2021 hasn’t started particularly well for Aspinall. He began it with new bats but his form with them was atrocious so he is now back to his old darts but confidence is a fragile thing and it goes quite quickly and he looks devoid of it, it has to be said. Aspinall lost in the first round of four Super Series events in a row earlier in the season and fell at the first hurdle in the UK Open as well so although he won three matches in the last two Super Series events he can’t be carrying a lot of confidence into this tournament and if there is an event that can beat you up and smash you in confidence wise this is the one. You’d have thought Aspinall would have the edge on the debutants but they all score heavier than him. You have to score in the game these days and Aspinall doesn’t do it as well as most in this field. I’d be surprised if he isn’t exiting the competition on Judgement Night.
Tips
WON – Back J.Clayton to win Premier League Darts (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 13.00 with William Hill (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
Back N.Aspinall Bottom 2 Finish for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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