Ten players started but after Judgement Night last week only eight men remain in this season’s Premier League darts event. With the threat of elimination now gone all the focus will be on making the top four after the weekly rounds to make it to the o2.
Thursday night is week ten of the season and once again there are five matches on show in Sheffield with two men playing twice, as they will be for the next four weeks. At the end of the night the playoff picture may well be clearer.
James Wade vs Raymond Barneveld
The action gets underway with a close looking match between James Wade, just on the fringes of the playoffs going into the round, and Raymond Barneveld who has plenty of catching up to do if he is to make it to the o2 again this year.
This isn’t unchartered territory for Barneveld. He had to come with a wet sail last season after a dodgy start to the campaign and there are signs he is going to do that this season too. Barney has taken a win and a draw from his last three matches and when he is getting beat it is generally 7-5 so there isn’t a lot in his matches.
James Wade has played some really nice stuff in this tournament. I still think there are some concerns about his doubling but last week was the first time in four matches that he didn’t average a ton but he still got a draw against the world champion so he’ll be full of belief going into this one.
Wade won when these two met earlier in the season. That match was 7-5 and I think this one will be close too. Each of the four previous seasons these two have been in the Premier League there have been a draw between them and I’m not ruling one out here. I don’t have a strong feel for either man in this one.
Gary Anderson vs Phil Taylor
The second match of the night has the potential to be the best one as it is a rerun of the 2015 World Championship final. These two have already met earlier in the season and Taylor won that game 7-4 but he might have been getting Anderson at the right time as it was right at the beginning of the campaign and Anderson had missed a spell with an illness.
That result was very much a rarity though. Not so much that Taylor won but that they didn’t go the full distance because their previous six matches all went the distance and it has to be said many of them ended on the side of Anderson. It might be that this one does too but this is another one that has a tight feel to it.
Anderson broke a run of six wins on the trot with a draw last week while Taylor is unbeaten since the opening round of the season so with both proving hard to beat it could be that they end all square once again.
Robert Thornton vs Michael van Gerwen
These two meet for the second time in three weeks after they played out a thrilling draw in Liverpool back in round eight of the competition.
That point was the one which propelled Robert Thornton out of the elimination zone and ensured he will play for the remainder of the league phase. Sadly for the Scot he is so far back he appears to be playing for pride and a few quid but he can freeroll and that is never a bad thing.
Michael van Gerwen will be competing heavily for this trophy when the playoffs come around but he goes into this match off the back of three successive draws, against Thornton, Phil Taylor and last week Raymond Barneveld. I’m not completely convinced van Gerwen is on top form and that might be a concern.
These two have met five times in the Premier League and while van Gerwen has a 7-1 win to his name the other four matches have all gone the distance so maybe thinking this will be one way traffic is not the right way to go about this match.
Thornton is getting a 3.5 leg head start in this match so with him throwing first that means van Gerwen needs two breaks of throw to win 7-3 or better and at this level that is never easy. It may be even less easy on this occasion with the Scot having nothing at all to lose so I’ll go with Thornton keeping this closer than the odds suggest.
Adrian Lewis vs Peter Wright
This is a big match for both men. Adrian Lewis begins the night in the final playoff spot but Peter Wright will overtake him if he can beat his opponent so the stakes are pretty high here.
Lewis goes into the match off the back of back to back wins over Raymond Barneveld and Robert Thornton while Wright got back to winning ways when he eliminated Dave Chisnall last week so both look to be in decent form.
The deciding factor here could be the head to head between the two. This is something I’ve mentioned before when these two play. Prior to a deciding leg in a tour event last month Wright had lost nine of the last 11 matches between the two so there is something about playing Lewis that he clearly doesn’t like.
We’ve already seen that in the Premier League this season when Lewis won 7-3 in their reverse meeting in a match where actually both played pretty well. Lewis tends to have good records against certain players and he maintains that and via throwing first he can get out of the blocks and get the pressure on Wright and force enough misses to be able to capitalise on and get the win.
Given that their recent tour match went the distance I’m going to give Wright enough respect to take Lewis without the draw in play rather than have the potential of biting my fingernails late on.
Phil Taylor vs James Wade
You rarely get a bad game when these two meet because Wade isn’t one of those who ever feared Taylor and as a result Taylor knows he has to play well to win but this match could be a tricky one to call purely because both are likely to have had a tough tussle earlier in the night.
Taylor averaged over 111 in a 7-1 thrashing of Wade in their reverse meeting and that was also Wade’s second match in a night but this time it will be Taylor’s too so that puts a different complexion on things.
I’m never one for predicting how these second games of a night go purely because the first game will have such an effect on proceedings but all things being equal there should be plenty of mileage in this one.
Tips
Back J.Wade vs R.Barneveld & G.Anderson vs P.Taylor Both Over 11.5 legs for a 2/10 stake at 4.95 with Skybet
Back it here:
Back J.Wade vs R.Barneveld & G.Anderson vs P.Taylor Draw Double for a 1/10 stake at 23.75 with Bet365
Back it here:
WON – Back R.Thornton (+3.5 legs) to beat M.van Gerwen for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Betfair
Back him here:
PUSH – Back A.Lewis to beat P.Wright (DNB) for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back him here:
