Premier League Darts returns on Thursday evening as the tournament heads to Glasgow for night eight.
Our darts tipster is here to give you his best bets for this week’s matches.
Michael van Gerwen v Michael Smith
The top two in the table go head-to-head in what looks a mouth-watering contest on paper. They are only separated on leg difference and with both possessing incredible scoring power, this should be a cracker.
MVG is the 33/10 favourite with Grosvenorsport.com and is looking to make it four wins in a row. He cruised to a 7-3 victory over Gerwyn Price on night seven and the world number one appears to be peaking at the business end of the tournament.
In Smith, he faces a worthy adversary, who has excelled on his second appearance in the Premier League having struggled on his tournament debut in 2016. He is very much the outsider for this one though, at 6/1.
These two have identical records in the Premier League with five wins and one defeat apiece. However, their tournament averages couldn’t be much further apart, with ‘Mighty Mike’ averaging over 103 and ‘Bullyboy’ a shade under 93.
Despite Smith’s position in the table, he has admitted he’s not been playing at his best recently, and with the Dutchman coming off a win at the Players Championship at the weekend, I’m taking him to stamp his authority on the tournament here.
Back MVG to take this one 7-2 at 7/2.
Peter Wright v Raymond van Barneveld
Since defeating Michael van Gerwen on night two, Peter Wright has failed to win and has only picked up two points.
He is coming off back-to-back 7-1 defeats and looked to be struggling with a shoulder injury in his defeat to Michael Smith last time out. He is 17/10 to get a much needed win.
Barney has been steady so far in the competition and sits in fifth place on six points. He missed five match darts on night seven as he was forced to settle for a draw with Gary Anderson. The Dutchman is the 6/5 favourite for this encounter.
As well as a niggling shoulder problem, Wright has been altering his darts on a regular basis and his performances have suffered as a result. Barneveld certainly hasn’t been playing at his best either but has been scraping results together and he looks a generous price against the out of form Englishman.
Rob Cross v Gerwyn Price
Having started his debut in the Premier League in terrible fashion, Rob Cross has turned things around incredibly impressively.
His latest 7-2 victory over Mensur Suljovic again showed he is very much a contender for the tournament.
The World Champion is fancied at 2/5 to make it five wins in a row against Price in the night’s final contest.
In stark contrast, Gerwyn Price’s debut in the Premier League has been a bit of a nightmare so far. He has failed to win a match and has just two points meaning he is rooted at the bottom of the table.
The Welshman is 11/2 to register a much-needed first win.
The way Cross has played in recent weeks mirrors the form he showed to win the World Championship and the other nine players should be very wary of man known as ‘Voltage’.
His opponent is clearly lacking in confidence on his tournament debut and Cross should win this comfortably.
He possesses much stronger scoring power than the Welshman and Grosvenorsport.com are offering an attractive 11/10 for Cross to win and hit the most 180s.
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