Our guide for night seven of the Cazoo Premier League Darts season includes match-by-match statistics, predictions, best bets and an acca.
Michael van Gerwen is gearing up for his huge night in Rotterdam while Michael Smith, Joe Cullen and James Wade are all hoping to end their wait to win a Premier League night after Gary Anderson broke his duck last week.
You can find stats for all four quarter-finals below, with match previews and tips.
Darts betting tips: Premier League night seven
1pt two or more 100+ checkouts in Wright v Wade at 6/4 (Sky Bet)
1pt Cullen to hit over 3.5 180s at 11/8 (Ladbrokes)
1pt Clayton v Price to have over 8.5 legs, a checkout over 100.5 & over 4.5 180s at 6/4 (Sky Bet)
1pt MVG to win and Smith to hit most 180s at 5/2 (Sky Bet)
Thursday March 24: Night seven quarter-finals
- Venue: Rotterdam Ahoy
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
- Format: Best of 11 legs
Peter Wright v James Wade
- Head to Head: 22-22, 1 draw (TV: 11-12, 1 draw)
- Meetings since start of 2021: 3-2 (TV: 2-2)
- Tournament Average
Wright: 98.21 (12 games)
Wade: 94.05 (10 games) - Tournament 180s (180s per leg)
Wright: 32 (106 legs, 0.30 per leg)
Wade: 22 (93 legs, 0.28 per leg) - Tournament Checkout %:
Wright: 55/132 (41.67%)
Wade: 43/121 (35.54%) - 100+ Checkouts and % legs won with a 100+ checkout:
Wright: 3 (5.45%)
Wade: 10 (23.26%)
James Wade baffled us all last week when throwing six 180s in just seven legs, averaging over 102 but missing eight of his nine darts at doubles and losing 6-1 to Michael Smith.
Unusually emphatic scoring combined with wasteful finishing is not what we expect from the Machine, who then lost two of his four matches during the weekend's Players Championship events in Barnsley.
Peter Wright endured an even worse weekend as he crashed out of both events in the very first round to Andrew Gilding and Steve West, averaging just 82 in the latter, so you have to wonder just how much his back problem is still bothering him.
Snakebite did manage to scrape a 6-4 victory over a struggling Joe Cullen in round one of last Thursday's Premier League night in Nottingham but he only averaged 87 before being soundly beaten by Gary Anderson in the semi-finals.
In terms of their head-to-head record, these giants of the game have 22 victories apiece down the years and although Wright has won three of their five meetings since the start of 2021, it's 2-2 on the televised stage.
It's hard to call where this one is going but I like the look of two or more 100+ checkouts in the match at 6/4. Wade has been hitting these for fun this season while a player of Wright's class is surely due to a flurry soon having strangely only managed three so far.
Scoreline prediction: 4-6
Gary Anderson v Joe Cullen
- Head to Head: 7-4 (TV: 2-1)
- Meetings since start of 2021: 1-1 (TV: 0-1)
- Tournament Average
Anderson: 95.66 (9 games)
Cullen: 93.16 (8 games) - Tournament 180s (180s per leg)
Anderson: 23 (87 legs, 0.26 per leg)
Cullen: 30 (75 legs, 0.40 per leg) - Tournament Checkout %
Anderson: 41/89 (46.07%)
Cullen: 31/109 (28.44%) - 100+ Checkouts and % legs won with a 100+ checkout
Anderson: 3 (7.32%)
Cullen: 5 (16.13%)
Gary Anderson is now playing his "best darts for three years" after winning his first Premier League night of the season last Thursday before following it up with a tremendous run to Saturday's Players Championship final in which he averaged around 105 across his seven matches.
He only averaged less than a ton once when posting 97.88 during victory over Michael van Gerwen in round two while his highest was a sensational 113.45 against Rob Cross. He even managed 103 in the final only to be unstuck by Damon Heta's 107.27.
A day later he somehow averaged 79 in a low-quality defeat to Darius Labanauskas but that hardly takes much shine of his very recent resurgence and it'll be fascinating to see how long he can maintain it for.
However, the narrative could have been so much different had he lost the deciding leg against Jonny Clayton in last Thursday's first-round match in which he averaged less than 90. That would have seen his losing streak extended to six games and left three points adrift at the bottom of the table.
This is why we should never get carried away about form until there's consistency over at least a few weeks and even Anderson admitted: "My games in a good place right now, but next week could be completely different."
Joe Cullen could be the ideal opponent for him to maintain the winning momentum when you consider how out of tune the Rockstar has been recently.
It looked as though Cullen was going to use his Masters success in the same way as Jonny Clayton did last season after winning back-to-back Players Championship events last month as well as reaching a Premier League final in week two but since then his form has crumbled.
He's lost his last four Premier League matches since then and has averaged lower than 94 in all of them including a pair in the mid 80s. His checkout percentage is also considerably the worst in the field at just 28.44% which totally takes the gloss of his 180 hitting.
Cullen had a pretty good weekend, reaching the semi-finals of the first event before losing to Anderson but he might just start to feel the pressure of being bottom of the table on Thursday night.
Nevertheless, I do expect plenty of legs and therefore Cullen hitting over 3.5 180s at 11/8 (Ladbrokes) seems a decent price to me given his maximum per leg ratio this season is 0.40.
Scoreline prediction: 6-4
Jonny Clayton v Gerwyn Price
- Head-to-Head: 8-12 (TV: 5-4)
- Meetings since start of 2021: 3-3 (TV: 3-2)
- Tournament Average
Clayton: 95.31 (13 games)
Price: 98.30 (9 games) - Tournament 180s (180s per leg)
Clayton: 25 (100 legs, 0.25 per leg)
Price: 22 (87 legs, 0.25 per leg) - Tournament Checkout %
Clayton: 48/127 (37.80%)
Price: 44/115 (38.26%) - 100+ Checkouts and % legs won with a 100+ checkout
Clayton: 7 (14.58%)
Price: 9 (20.45%)
Just when we thought Gerwyn Price's mysterious hand injury had magically disappeared when averaging over 100 in a first-round victory over in-form Michael van Gerwen last Thursday, it caused him problems in the very next match against Michael Smith and he subsequently withdrew from the weekend's Players Championship events.
Rest is not a bad thing after such a packed schedule in recent weeks but having withdrawn from the Premier League action in Brighton a fortnight, he will feel more compelled to turn up on Thursday to give it his best shot.
If he can come out all guns blazing for one match like he did against MVG - hitting three 180s, two 100+ checkouts and missing just two attempts at doubles - then he can push Jonny Clayton, who has hardly played to his best levels recently.
The Ferret has lost four of his last five Premier League matches since winning the second night in Liverpool while he failed to go beyond the last 16 in either Players Championship event across the weekend, albeit posting three 100+ averages in his seven matches overall.
Despite their respective inconsistent form and Price's injury worries, they've still been hitting a respectable about of 180s in the Premier League this season (0.25 per leg apiece) and are also pretty prolific on the 100+ checkouts, combining for 16 overall of which nine have been 120+.
Sky Bet's Match Action market requires over 8.5 legs, a high checkout of over 100.5 and more than 4.5 maximums at 6/4 which seems comfortably manageable.
Scoreline prediction: 6-4
Michael van Gerwen v Michael Smith
- Head to Head: 34-9 (TV: 14-4)
- Meetings since start of 2021: 3-1 (TV: 2-1)
- Tournament Average
MVG: 100.20 (12 games)
Smith: 95.90 (11 games) - Tournament 180s (180s per leg)
MVG: 34 (106 legs, 0.32 per leg)
Smith: 32 (98 legs, 0.33 per leg) - Tournament Checkout %
MVG: 65/138 (47.10%)
Smith: 49/108 (45.37%) - 100+ Checkouts and % legs won with a 100+ checkout
MVG: 12 (18.46%)
Smith: 6 (12.24%)
One of the niggling issues I have with the new Premier League format is that the 'home favourite' has to win three matches for the crowd to go home as happy as they would have done after just one victory in previous seasons.
We saw this with Jonny Clayton in Cardiff when he raised the roof with two victories only for the crowd to be left feeling pretty flat after he found Peter Wright too hot to handle in the final.
Just think back to the numerous occasions in the past - such as John Henderson's battling draw with Michael van Gerwen - when the crowd was sent into delirium and nothing could subsequently take the gloss off the atmosphere. However that could happen if MVG follows up a victory over Michael Smith by losing either of his next two matches.
Sure, this is just a tiny little issue that probably won't even be considered when the PDC come to evaluate whether this new format has been a success or not, and who's to say MVG won't win all three matches and make it a truly special night for all in attendance at the Rotterdam Ahoy.
MVG hasn't only once played in front of a Dutch crowd since before the pandemic so this is undoubtedly one of the highlights in his calendar and will have left no stone unturned in his preparations.
Form-wise, it was all looking so incredibly good a week ago after following up back-to-back Premier League wins with a first European Tour title in almost three years but then he was stunned by an injured Gerwyn Price last Thursday and then suffered a second-round defeat to Gary Anderson in a Players Championship event on Saturday, averaging just 94.38. He didn't play on the Sunday.
Smith, meanwhile, responded to his UK Open disappointment by reaching two Premier League finals in as many weeks - losing the first to MVG with an average of 100 before a narrow defeat to Anderson with a 99 average - while at the weekend he reached the quarter-final of the second Players Championship event before losing to eventually champion Jim Williams.
I do expect a high-quality affair, with MVG winning the match and Smith edging the 180s battle which can be doubled up at 5/2.
Scoreline prediction: 6-4
Weekly winner: Night seven odds
- MVG: 10/3
- Wright: 10/3
- Price: 9/2
- Clayton: 13/2
- Anderson: 7/1
- Smith: 8/1
- Wade: 10/1
- Cullen: 11/1
CLICK HERE FOR ALL THIS SEASON'S RESULTS, TABLE AND STATISTICS
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