The Premier League Darts season rolls into Leeds on Thursday night for what is a big evening of action, especially for those outside the top four who desperately need to pick up points with time running out on the regular part of the campaign.
A gap has formed between the top five and the rest of the players so the three who aren’t in that probably need to win the night to get themselves back into contention while the top five will look to nail down their position.
Michael Smith vs Chris Dobey
The opening quarter final of the night in Leeds sees two players who are not currently in the top four on show as the world champion Michael Smith meets the Masters winner Chris Dobey in a big match for both men in the overall picture.
Smith is only a point outside the top four so if he wins this match he will return to the semi-final spots with the power to add more points to his collection over the course of the night. Dobey has been competitive in this campaign but would swap that for points as he is now nine points away from the top four and is probably going to need to win two of the last four nights in order to be at the o2 at the end of the season. We are at the stage where you wonder about the motivation of the stragglers so I expect Smith to win this but he is priced accordingly.
Michael van Gerwen vs Peter Wright
The second quarter final of the evening will see Michael van Gerwen looking to return to the top of the table when he goes up against rock bottom Peter Wright who probably needs to win the last four nights if he is going to be at the o2.
That clearly isn’t going to happen, not just because of the quality of the field he is up against but also because his form has fallen off of a cliff so this one is all about van Gerwen who was annoyed not to perform in Rotterdam last week and who might be out with a point to prove following that. If not performing in Rotterdam failed to hurt MVG enough, a 7-0 whitewash by Josh Rock against him on the European Tour over the weekend certainly won’t have helped his mood and you would imagine Wright might be the one to pay the price for that. The Scot can play with a bit of freedom here and look to find something resembling his best form and play the role of party pooper but based on what we’ve seen in this tournament and the ones around it, it is hard to go against an MVG win. That is another which is priced accordingly though.
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Gerwyn Price vs Jonny Clayton
The penultimate quarter final of the evening sees the two Welsh stars going at it once again when the table topper Gerwyn Price takes on the fourth placed Jonny Clayton in which is clearly a bigger match for the latter.
Price has been a monster in the last few months but he doesn’t need to do much more to secure his place at the o2 so you wonder if the edge will come off the top of his game when you consider the travelling he has done recently, although he didn’t compete in the European Tour event at the weekend which might help. Clayton won that European Tour event in Graz over the weekend so he’ll be coming into this one flying. Price has won three of their four Premier League meetings this season but if the edge does come off his game then Clayton should have the confidence to get the job done here. He is hugely overpriced at 19/10 in a race to six.
Nathan Aspinall vs Dimitri Van den Bergh
The last of the quarter finals offers up the chance for Nathan Aspinall to consolidate his top four spot after his win in Rotterdam last week when he takes on a Dimitri Van den Bergh who might need snookers to reach the o2 from the position he is in.
Whether snookers are needed or not Van den Bergh needs to win a couple of the last four nights at the very least so needs to give this everything he’s got with only one of the big three in his half of the draw this week. Aspinall looked in decent nick last week and if he plays a little more relaxed now that he is in a good position in the table then the missed doubles which contributed to his defeat on the European Tour at the weekend shouldn’t haunt him. They are a concern though and enough of one to put me off backing him but there’s been nothing of Van den Bergh recently to like so I’ll leave this one alone.
Tips
Back J.Clayton to beat G.Price for a 3/10 stake at 2.90 with William Hill
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