The Premier League Darts season finally hits England on Thursday night when the fifth evening of the competition is played out in Exeter in a session which could have plenty of implications to the overall table over the course of the night.
The current top four in the standings are in one half of the draw on Thursday while the bottom four are in the other so there is sure to be some movement over the course of the evening in another chase for the £10,000 on offer for winning on the night.
Michael van Gerwen vs Gerwyn Price
We begin with two of the best players in the world on show when the Premier League leader Michael van Gerwen goes up against the man in third place in Gerwyn Price, with the pair meeting for a third time in the season already.
Their first two meetings both went the distance. Price won in front of a raucous home crowd in Cardiff in week two and then van Gerwen got his revenge in the final in Dublin last week. It will be interesting to see if this one goes to a final leg as well. It very easily could do although Price isn’t likely to enjoy the crowd support he had in Cardiff and to a lesser extent Dublin. That could be significant. Van Gerwen comes in here off the back of a shock loss to Stephen Bunting in the European Tour event at the weekend. Price lost in the quarter final to Dave Chisnall and probably edged the form over the weekend but I doubt that will count for much here. On a night where standout bets look in short supply I’ll take the over 9.5 legs in this one. It has landed in five of their six Premier League meetings in this format and both are playing well enough for it to come in again.
Michael Smith vs Nathan Aspinall
The second match of the night sees the world champion Michael Smith looking to move on from his second spot in the table when he takes on a Nathan Aspinall who has made a bright start to his campaign and sits in fourth spot heading into the evening.
Aspinall has either been excellent in this tournament or thrashed and that is largely down to his doubling which in some matches has been superb and then in others bang ordinary. You could say the same about Smith albeit his scoring power has kept him in more matches. This will be their second meeting in the Premier League this term. Aspinall won their first in the second week of the campaign but Smith has clicked into gear since then. Both exited the European Tour event early over the weekend so have a point to prove but guessing who will finish the better isn’t easy. I guess the scoring power Smith has will get him to more doubles so I’d fancy him but not with as much confidence as I’d like if I was going to back a 4/7 shot.
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Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Chris Dobey
The third quarter final on the evening is a big one as the two men in fifth and sixth in the table meet with one of Dimitri Van den Bergh or Chris Dobey enhancing their point tally and the other potentially getting left behind by the top four.
This is a rare occurrence even this early in the season of two players who are yet to meet in the tournament battling it out. The numbers that Van den Bergh has put up have been very encouraging but the results haven’t followed those numbers. He will hope to begin a run of the two coming together here. Dobey probably hasn’t been as statistically strong as the Belgian but he has won one of the evenings and carried his form from winning The Masters. He has only won four legs in the last two weeks though which might be a concern but on the flip side of that he had the weekend off and hasn’t had to travel to Germany and back. This one could go either way. I fancy Van den Bergh on the displays he has showed so far but that is reflected in the odds so I’ll leave this one alone.
Jonny Clayton vs Peter Wright
The last of the quarter finals sees the bottom two meeting in what might already be a season defining night for Peter Wright. He has lost in the first match in all four weeks so far and only won 15 legs in those matches. He now faces Jonny Clayton needing a win to keep on the tails of the top four.
Clayton only has four points to show for his efforts to date too and he’ll know with the top four meeting each other in the quarter finals that he can’t afford to lose ground by losing this match. I do think Clayton looks in a better place than Wright right now. Clayton paid the price for far too many missed doubles in the early part of the season but in the last two weeks he has won his quarter final before running into Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen, the standout players in the game right now. Away from the Premier League, Clayton has had good runs in the Players Championship events and was a semi-finalist in Germany over the weekend where he was playing some good darts before a five leg burst from eventual winner Dave Chisnall overpowered him. Wright doesn’t look in good touch at all. He is already swapping darts at every opportunity. He was beaten by Keegan Brown in the European Tour event over the weekend and has won just three of his last 11 matches in all competitions. These two met four times in the Premier League last term and Clayton won the lot. I think he looks better placed to win this one too.
Night 5 preview
As ever we have the odds for the evening outright priced up and this draw is actually a very interesting one with basically the four form players in one half of it and the four out of form ones in the other part of it. You could make the case for the top half being a tournament in itself but someone will come through the bottom half and do their chances of pushing for the top four no harm at all.
I think the price on Dimitri Van den Bergh might be worth taking here. In all the main metrics he is playing much better than Chris Dobey, averaging 1.5pts higher for the season, hitting more 180s per leg and finishing much better, and if that translates into a victory he will face one of the bottom two in a semi-final where he would be no worse than even money to win. Only the top two in the league are averaging much better than Van den Bergh and nobody in the competition is checking out better. If he plays to those numbers then with an easier draw he can do some damage.
Tips
Back M.van Gerwen vs G.Price – Over 9.5 legs for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back it here:
Back J.Clayton to beat P.Wright for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betway
Back D.Van den Bergh to win Night 5 (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 10.00 with BetVictor (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
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