The first batch of five Premier League Darts nights concludes on Friday so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match predictions, best bets and a suggested acca.
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The standings are pretty congested as you might expect after just four nights of the new season that has already produced two nine-dart finishes and plenty of unpredictable results.
Tonight is the last night of action until the Premier League resumes on April 19 so they'll all be looking to sign off with a moral-boosting victory ahead of a much-needed break...
Premier League Night Five: April 9
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 BST)
- Format: Maximum of 12 legs
- Suggested Acca: Cross (+2.5), Aspinall (+2.5) & De Sousa at 4/1 (Sky Bet)
Gary Anderson (7/4) v Jonny Clayton (11/10), draw (3/1)
- Head to Head: 9-1 (TV:2-0)
- Meetings since start of 2020: 2-0 (TV: 0-0)
- Last Meeting: 6-4 (Players Championship, July 2020)
- Career PDC Titles: 46-7 (TV: 15-2)
- PDC Titles this season: 0-3 (TV: 0-1)
Wednesday's nine-dart hero Jonny Clayton looked as though he was heading for an unbeaten first week in the Premier League until he reminded everyone that he too is prone to producing a below-par display out of nowhere.
After posting two averages of 105 either side of a creditable mark of 98 in his opening three games, he slumped to a relatively surprising 7-3 defeat at the hands of Rob Cross with an average of 96. Now that's hardly shabby but he missed 13 of his 16 darts at doubles compared to hitting seven out of nine the previous night!
I'd say this was just a blip in what has been an incredible year for the Ferret so far and you should expect to see him back on it against Gary Anderson, who has been nothing more than steady so far, with all his averages ranging between 97 and 99.
The head-to-head record looks pretty ominous but they haven't met since Clayton found another level to his game and this is an ideal opportunity to even up the score a little. His Player Performance targets below are very tame considering what he's been doing on the dart board and the toughest part will be the win.
Predicted Scoreline: 4-7
- Suggested Bet: Jonny Clayton to win the match, score over 2.5 180s and checkout over 80.5 at 5/2 (Sky Bet)
Peter Wright (4/6) v Rob Cross (7/2), draw (11/4)
- Head to Head: 9-10, 2 draws (TV: 6-5, 2 draws)
- Meetings since start of 2020: 2-0 (TV: 1-0)
- Last Meeting: 6-2 (Players Championship, July 2020)
- Career PDC Titles: 35-9 (TV: 8-4)
- PDC Titles this season: 1-0 (TV: 0-0)
I may have been sniggered at by some people when tipping up Rob Cross at 40/1 each-way for the title and while I'm nowhere near having the last laugh yet, at least he's putting himself in early contention and starting to prove he was wrong to be widely written off as relegation fodder.
Not that he's ensured survival by any stretch of the imagination but if he's going to do that, he needed a positive first week to further build his growing confidence from his work behind the scenes and you can really see a different player on the oche to the one we've witnessed for the past 18 months.
Anyone who read my outright preview will know Peter Wright was my much shorter price tip and I'm clinging to the hope that he produces more of his hot days than cold ones to reach the play-offs. Already we've seen highs and lows - including a very poor day at the office against Michael van Gerwen when he averaged 88 - and he even produced a rare mediocre performance in the middle during a 6-6 draw with Dimitri Van den Bergh last night.
He's always a very hard player to predict on a match-by-match basis but i think between the two of them they can contribute to a lengthy battle which will help them hit the below targets of 5+ 180s and a high out of 103 or more. Wright has hit 4+ checkouts above that figure while Cross has fired in 13 maximums so far.
- Predicted Scoreline: 7-5
- Suggested Bet: Match to have over 10.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 102.5 and over 4.5 total 180s at 11/8 (Sky Bet)
Michael van Gerwen (8/13) v Nathan Aspinall (3/1), draw (7/2)
- Head to Head: 6-4 (TV: 3-1)
- Meetings since start of 2020: 3-2 (TV: 2-1)
- Last Meeting: 6-5 (European Darts Grand Prix, October 2020)
- Career PDC Titles: 138-5 (TV: 55-2)
- PDC Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
Nathan Aspinall loves playing Michael van Gerwen and boasts one of the best records against him since the start of 2019 with four victories out of nine meetings in that time - while his biggest defeat was 6-3 at the 2020 World Championship which was by no means a thrashing.
They haven't played since the wheels started falling off for Aspinall after reaching the Premier League play-offs but thankfully for the Stockport star it looks as though his mojo has returned in time for this latest battle thanks to a switch to his 'old faithful' darts and it really looks like the enthusiastic, fired-up Aspinall of 'old' is on that stage again.
The way he repelled Jose de Sousa's nine-darter and record-equalling 11 180s to grind out a 6-6 draw despite only hitting two maximums of his own was trademark Asp and there's no doubt that point will feel like a victory in the circumstances.
MVG, by contrast, has gone from 'back to his best' to 'back to the drawing board' in 48 hours having posted an average of 107 in a 7-3 demolition of Rob Cross to averaging 90.91 in a 7-3 defeat to a below-par James Wade.
No idea what Mighty Mike will turn up tonight but the only constant here is a revived Aspinall who will be relishing the challenge so I'll keep this one simple and go for the upset win.
- Predicted Scoreline: 5-7
- Suggested Bet: Aspinall to win the match at 10/3 (Betfred, bet365)
James Wade (2/7) v Glen Durrant (6/1), draw (5/1)
- Head to Head: 3-1 (TV: 2-1)
- Meetings since start of 2020: 3-0 (TV: 2-0)
- Last Meeting: 5-2 (Grand Slam of Darts, November 2020)
- Career PDC Titles: 38-3 (TV: 11-1)
- PDC Titles this season: 1-0 (TV: 1-0)
"I didn't beat Michael. I beat 'A Player'."
James Wade couldn't have played down his 7-3 victory over Michael van Gerwen any more than he did last night although he was right not to get too carried away considering how easy his opponent made it for him to cruise towards the finishing line with a mid 90s average.
Having picked up just one draw from his opening three matches he probably wasn't expecting such a gift wrapped two points ahead of a game nearly everyone - including himself - will be expecting him to win. If he does so then suddenly he'll end the week right in the mix for the top four.
It's very hard to make a case for Glen Durrant after a nightmare few months in his career ever since winning last year's Premier League title while he's averaged in the 80s on all four nights, hit just two 180s and managed just eight legs.
However, if he could somehow get to three against Aspinall and Clayton, who both managed averages around 98 then what if Wade continues as he's been playing these last three nights with averages of 88, 92 and 95?
It might be easier said than done right now but Duzza needs to win an early leg and give himself something to hold onto in a match rather than playing catch-up and feeling like every leg is just to make the scoreline respectable. If he can do that then this could be closer than the odds suggest.
- Predicted Scoreline: 6-6
- Suggested Bet: Glen Durrant (+2.5 legs) on the handicap at 7/4 (General)
Dimitri Van den Bergh (11/10) v Jose de Sousa (7/4), draw (3/1)
- Head to Head: 0-1 (TV: 0-0)
- Meetings since start of 2020: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
- Last Meeting: 5-7 (Players Championship, June 2019)
- Career PDC Titles: 1-4 (TV: 1-1)
- PDC Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
How Jose de Sousa is still without a win is quite an injustice considering the way he's played over the past two nights but at least it shows he's finally found his feet from a performance point of view in his debut Premier League season.
The Special One scrapped to a draw on opening night with Rob Cross before spurned three darts at a double to do the same with Gary Anderson, but then averaged 108 in a 7-3 defeat to Jonny Clayton and then couldn't back up a nine-darter and a record-equalling 11 maximums with both points against Nathan Aspinall.
Nevertheless the serial miscounter can still take plenty of positives from this and I expect him to maintain this momentum and pick up his first win against fellow debutant Dimitri Van den Bergh, who tops the table after a terrific unbeaten start.
I'm going to throw in the Player Performance targets of 4+ 180s and a checkout of over 76.5 as well to create a tempting 7/2 but a safer play is taking over 7.5 180s in the match at 11/10.
De Sousa has managed 20 overall while Van den Bergh has weighed in with 19 so you'd like to see we'll see more of the same high scoring tonight.
- Predicted Scoreline: 5-7
- Suggested Bets: Over 7.5 180s at 11/10 (William Hill) & Jose De Sousa to win the match, score over 3.5 180s and checkout over 76.5 at 7/2 (Sky Bet)
2021 Premier League Darts Table
- Dimitri Van den Bergh P 4 W 2 D 2 L 0 LegD +9 Pts 6
- Nathan Aspinall P 4 W 2 D 1 L 1 LegD +5 Pts 5
- Michael van Gerwen P 4 W 2 D 1 L 1 LegD +5 Pts 5
- Jonny Clayton P 4 W 2 D 1 L 1 LegD +4 Pts 5
- Rob Cross P 4 W 2 D 1 L 1 LegD +4 Pts 5
- Gary Anderson P 4 W 2 D 1 L 1 LegD +4 Pts 5
- Peter Wright P 4 W 1 D 2 L 1 LegD -2 Pts 4
- James Wade P 4 W 1 D 1 L 2 LegD -3 Pts 3
- Jose de Sousa P 4 W 0 D 2 L 2 LegD -6 Pts 2
- Glen Durrant P 4 W 0 D 0 L 4 LegD -20 Pts 0
- The top four after 16 games qualify for the end of season play-offs, where the title will be decided
- Players earn two points for a win, and one for a draw.
- When players are tied on points, leg difference is used first as a tie-breaker, after that legs won against throw and then tournament average.
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