Darts
Premier League Darts Night Seven preview: MvG to extend winning run?
The Premier League Darts rolls into it’s seventh night at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham on Thursday, with Michael van Gerwen looking to extend his eight point lead at the top of the table after producing a scintillating run of victories over the past month.
We preview three of the quarter-final fixtures below.
Jonny Clayton vs Gerwyn Price
Gerwyn Price has only tasted success in one of the six Premier League nights so far, triumphing 6-3 against Nathan Aspinall in Cardiff, and has yet to make it past the quarter-final stage since. The Iceman will however fancy his chances against his fellow Welsh compatriot in this Thursday’s quarters, who he has beaten both times in their previous matchups in 2023 so far, and goes into this one as the narrow 4/6 favourite.
Clayton will however definitely put up a good fight, having reached the semi finals in four previous nights before his quarter-final exit to the imperious Michael van Gerwen last week. He will certainly want to go one further this time round but will have to overcome a tenacious Price to reach the semi-finals in Nottingham, and starts as the 6/5 underdog to progress on the night.
We like the look of Clayton here. Price is yet to really click into gear in the half-dozen weeks we’ve seen him in the Premier League, and this could be a good opportunity for The Ferret to claim his first victory over the Iceman this year. If you’re really sitting on the fence, then either player to win 6-5 has been boosted from 5/2 to 3/1.
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Peter Wright vs Michael van Gerwen
Arguably the tie of the round sees league leader Michael van Gerwen clash with bottom of the table Peter Wright. Snakebite has remarkably only won one match in six weeks of Premier League action – advancing to the semi-finals in last week’s contest in Liverpool before being thrashed 6-1 by van Gerwen. It looks an arduous task for the Englishman to pick up his second win of the tour in Nottingham this week and he starts Thursday’s match as the 19/10 underdog.
van Gerwen continues to go from strength to strength and has won the last three nights on the bounce, most recently seeing off Michael Smith 6-3 in Liverpool to extend his lead at the top of the Premier League to eight points. Mighty Mike is the outright favourite to win the night in Nottingham at 2/1 and is tipped to make lightwork of this quarter-final clash against Wright, starting the clash at 2/5 to progress to his fourth consecutive semi-final.
It’s difficult to look past van Gerwen for this one. It truly is a top vs bottom clash in terms of form, and the real question will be how much the Dutchman wins this by. van Gerwen to triumph 6-1 or 6-2 has been boosted from 5/2 to 3/1, with a 6-3 win priced at 4/1.
Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Nathan Aspinall
This likewise has the potential to be a close encounter. Van den Bergh and Aspinall occupy third and fifth respectively in the league table and will serve as the opening game in Thursday’s action. The DreamMaker’s highest finish so far was at Night Three in Glasgow where he was beaten 6-4 in the final by Michael Smith, having dispatched Aspinall 6-1 in the corresponding semi-final. The Dutchman has however only reached the semi-final once since then and will be keen to start this week’s tournament with a win, and is priced as the narrow 4/5 favourite to do so.
Aspinall has similarly made it to one final out of six so far – losing 6-3 to Gerwyn Price in Night Two in Cardiff, although he has managed to reach the semi-finals in each of the last two tournaments on the bounce. The Asp will however have to contend with an abysmal head-to-head record against Thursday’s opponent, having lost all of the last nine meetings between the two, if he is to make a third successive last four appearance, and is considered the slight outsider at EVS to put that record straight.
This is probably the tightest fixture of the quarter-finals to call, with Aspinall arguably in better nick but Van den Bergh seeming to have the Englishman’s number. Over 9.5 legs for the match is priced at 10/11 if you fancy the game to go to the wire.
