The Premier League Darts event moves from Ireland to Scotland this week for night four of the exclusive competition. Aberdeen is the venue for five more extremely high profile matches.
Dublin separated the men from the boys last week with comfortable wins for Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright and Phil Taylor while Raymond Barneveld also got a second win. All four men will be looking to back that up here.
Adrian Lewis vs James Wade
The night kicks off with two Englishmen doing battle as Lewis and Wade meet in the latest edition of a long running rivalry. Both men enter the night on two wins so whoever can win this match will be looking up at the semi-final places. The loser could begin to look over their shoulders at the relegation zone.
They meet for the 46th time here and while Wade has had the better of their meetings overall it is Lewis who is now unbeaten in the last four encounters and the way he has begun this Premier League he is probably a rightful favourite but Wade can hang in there and he’s scoring a lot better so I don’t see much in the way of value on Jackpot so I’ll sit the opening game out.
Gary Anderson vs Raymond Barneveld
The world champion is in action in the second match of the night. He takes on the ever popular Raymond Barneveld. Anderson will be looking for his first win in the tournament this season while Barneveld can move to six points were he to get the win.
The last time these two met in the Premier League, Barneveld won 7-5 with Anderson accusing him of gamesmanship as the two confronted each other on the stage. Anderson has won their last two battles but prior to that Barneveld was unbeaten in three matches.
It will be interesting to see which way the crowd goes here. Barney is loved in Scotland but Anderson is the home son. The crowd could have a significant effect on the outcome so with that in mind I’ll sit this one out especially as there isn’t much between the two.
Michael van Gerwen vs Michael Smith
After a surprise defeat on the opening night of the season, Michael van Gerwen has really got going in this tournament and he will be expected to see off a Michael Smith who has just one point from four matches and who hasn’t produced anything like the form we know that he can do.
Things have been tough for Smith and they’re about to get even tougher. After he faces van Gerwen here his next two matches come against Raymond Barneveld and Gary Anderson and he faces Phil Taylor on Judgement Night. Needless to say he needs wins and fast but history suggests it isn’t going to come here.
Although Smith has won a couple of European Tour finals against van Gerwen it is the Dutchman who has had the better of their meetings. Their two TV tournament clashes finished 16-6 and 10-3 in MVGs favour and when the two met at the weekend the Dutchman won 6-0 in a UK Open qualifier.
Based on what we’ve seen in this tournament for the past two weeks I’m expecting something equally as emphatic here so even on a -3.5 leg handicap I think van Gerwen looks a good thing. He covered it against Anderson and can cover it here too.
Phil Taylor vs Dave Chisnall
The penultimate match of the night sees Phil Taylor and Dave Chisnall meeting. Taylor goes into the match a point ahead of Chisnall but the winner here will really do their semi-final aspirations the world of good.
Taylor begins as the warm favourite and based on the previous two weeks where he dismissed James Wade and edged out Gary Anderson that is a fair assessment of how the match should go but Chisnall has plenty of scoring power on his side and has won three of their last six meetings including one in the Premier League last year.
With that in mind I’ll let Taylor win I think but one thing I am happy to bet on here is for ‘The Power’ to hit more than 2.5 180s. Really and truly this is a daft line. Taylor might not have covered it in the first two weeks but he wasn’t at the races in week one and Wade had little answer to him in week two.
Taylor hit four 180s in his win last week and spoke about getting a feel for his darts now. With the way Chisnall scores these days Taylor will need the big scores to keep up so I think unless he has a terrible lie on the 60 he’ll stay up there more than normal. If that is the case three 180s is well in his reach as he showed when he hit five in a 7-3 win over Chisnall last season.
Peter Wright vs Robert Thornton
The night finishes with the all-Scottish battle in front of a home crowd as the 100% man who tops the table in Peter Wright takes on the 0% man who props everyone up in Robert Thornton. Tournament form so far would suggest this will be one way traffic.
Their head to head record might well suggest that too because Wright is unbeaten in their last seven and he has won six of those matches too. For all that though, at no point in that run has Wright won a match by more than two legs so the actual results would suggest they are a little more evenly matched than the record suggests.
We’ve not seen anything like the best of Robert Thornton in this tournament yet but there were signs last week that we might start to see something approaching his best again now. He is over the illness which forced him out of week two and is in front of a Scottish crowd which should inspire him.
Wright has had his flat spots in this tournament. He was lucky to beat Barneveld in week two and was a break down to Wade last week before Wade’s standard dipped alarmingly. If Thornton can pepper the 60 and do nothing silly on the doubles he can force this the distance if not actually win the game.
WON – Back M.van Gerwen (-3.5 legs) to beat M.Smith for a 4/10 stake at 2.08 with NetBet
Back him here:
WON – Back P.Taylor Over 2.5 180s vs D.Chisnall for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back it here:
WON – Back R.Thornton (+2.5 legs) to beat P.Wright for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Unibet
Back it here:
