We’re still trying to get over the opening week of the Premier League darts, but the second day is just around the corner.

In the opening games we saw a confident Gary Anderson playing extremely well, an inspired performance from Glen Durrant and a cracker between Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright.

It’s sure to be a great evening of action and you can find all of our darts betting odds here.

Rob Cross v Nathan Aspinall

This is going to be an unbelievable match. This fixture would have been one of the hardest to call before the Players Championship 2.

Nathan Aspinall showed that he is in the form of his life and is enjoying every second of it. After his positive display against John Henderson on night one of the PDC, where he hit a Big Fish, he then went on to win the Players Championship 2 final against Gerwyn Price.

On his way to the final he hit a nine-darter and also averaged 117.5 in the quarter-final against world champion Wright. He picked up his second ProTour title, and fourth senior PDC title, in an 8-3 masterclass over Welshman Price.

Night two sets up a rematch from the 2019 UK Open in which Aspinall and Rob Cross go head-to-head. Cross produced a decent performance against Price in his first round, bagging a draw in the process.

The former world champion could have taken all three points but was unable to hold throw in the last. What we have here are two top players that, when at their best, are formidable forces.

Cross has lost two stone in weight thanks to a new training regime since his early exit in the World Championships and is hoping that this will be enough. We’ve seen this before, however, when Phil Taylor lost a large amount of weight and struggled to adapt.

He has also struggled in the two Players Championships, losing to Anderson in the last 16 of the first and then to Darius Labanauskus in the last 128.

Aspinall is 5/4 to win his match and that’s tempting.

Gerwyn Price v Michael Smith

Michael Smith has been having a torrid time recently. He was dumped out of the World Championships early doors, lost in the Masters final to Wright and in last week’s Premier League was embarrassed by debuting Durrant.

During the game against Duzza, Smith was throwing far too quickly and missing too many doubles. Both men had averaged 95 which is respectable, but the little mistakes cost Smith on several occasions, leaving him visibly frustrated. He’s a quality darts player and could be one of the very best if he ironed out these mistakes in his game.

Price, on the other hand, had a solid opener against Cross and continued his momentum in the Players Championships over the weekend.

Although the points were shared at the end of the game, Price forced two consecutive sets to level the game up. His finishing was positive and he threw some impressive darts.

It wasn’t his best game though, as it was quite topsy-turvy at times, which leaves more to come. When Price is at his best, he can be unbeatable.

I can see the Welshman coming into this fixture very aggressively and looking to assert his dominance.

He then got to the final of the Players Championship 2 where he lost to an electric Aspinall.

He could potentially walk away with this if Smith performs like he did in the opener. Price to win 7-3 is 17/2.

Gary Anderson v Peter Wright

Another huge game which is incredibly hard to call. Anderson has been playing extremely well lately and his opening game victory against Daryl Gurney was a fantastic performance.

He won the 10^th and 11^th legs in only 25 darts and then took out a 104 finish, the highest of the match, to win the game.

Anderson also found success over the weekend winning his first ranking event in the Players Championship 1. He had a fantastic run and seems to be in a very positive run of form.

He’s up against the reigning Masters and World Champion, Snake Bite, Wright. Wright has been playing unbelievable darts and was unlucky to not get anything from his opening game against MVG.

It looks like he’s in the form of his life after winning the World Championships and the Masters in the space of a month. The world number two has looked formidable and was throwing fantastic darts against MVG.

He had the opportunity to go at least 5-0 up against the green machine but missed a couple of key doubles to let MVG get back in. Had he have hit them; it could have been a different game.

This will be the match of the night and I would back the draw at 3/1.

Glen Durrant v Fallon Sherrock

It is here where we find the second challenger of the Premier League, Queen of Ally Pally, Fallon Sherrock. Sherrock made waves when she became the first ever female to win a World Championship against a man at the last World Championship.

Fallon fever didn’t stop there as she went on to beat Mensur Sulovic before bowing out to Chris Dobey. She’s taken the world by storm and it would be no surprise if we see the crowd heavily backing her once again.

Durrant is coming off the back of a superb win against Smith, putting on a darts masterclass and showing what he’s capable of. This is the first Premier League for the three-time BDO champion as a permanent member.

He gained a spot after a fantastic 2019 and continuing the momentum into the PDC World Championships where he reached the quarter-finals. He sat out during the Masters but came back to produce an emphatic win against Smith in his opening round of the Premier League.

He sits at the top of the Premier League coming into this game and will be looking for another win.

This could go one of two ways. Another Sherrock shock similar to her tremendous run at the World Championships, or a Duzza demolishing. I’m going to go with the latter at very short price of 1/3.

Daryl Gurney v Michael van Gerwen

MVG faces Gurney in his second game of the Premier League and will be looking to double his points tally with a win over SuperChin.

He had a stellar performance with his new darts in the first round, beating Wright to earn himself his first win on the road to five consecutive Premier League titles.

The Green Machine is, surprise surprise, the 17/20 favourite to win the tournament outright. He exploded into action, capitalising on two Wright mistakes which could have seen him go 5-0 down. Instead, he battled back ferociously to take the win.

Gurney played well in his opener against Anderson. It wasn’t a matter of SuperChin playing poorly or being off on the night. It was more the fact that Anderson was absolutely flying, especially with the Scottish crowd behind him.

However, it has not been great for Gurney in the Players Championship as he’s gone out in the last 64 in both events.

Even though MVG hasn’t had the greatest Players Championship matches over the weekend, I still believe he will be beating Gurney here at 7/20.

Comments

comments