The Premier League of Darts moves into week five as the arrows action ramps up once again with the unstoppable Luke Littler back in business following his UK Open title win last week.
Littler is amongst those in action on Thursday night as Brighton takes centre stage for the competition.
Our tipster Ben Smith is back at the oche once again to try and fire off a tasty treble. Game on!
Darts Tips
Week Five Straight Forecast – Luke Littler 1st / Luke Humphries 2nd
7:15pm: Gerwyn Price v Michael van Gerwen – Gerwyn Price to win
8.45pm: Stephen Bunting v Nathan Aspinall – Nathan Aspinall to win
Week Five Straight Forecast – Luke Littler 1st / Luke Humphries 2nd
Luke Littler and Luke Humphries now hold eight of the 10 individual PDC premier event titles between them after the Nuke’s UK Open triumph on Sunday.
The world No.1 and 2 will be huge favourites at the World Cup in June, where they can cement themselves as the undisputed top two on the planet.
They have done that throughout the Premier League campaign, too. Three of the four weeks have been won by one of the Lukes, with each boasting one win over the other in a final.
Nobody has won more than four Premier League nights since the format change in 2022, but these two could both surpass that total, if they carry on like this. Littler has the edge on Humphries at the moment, despite Cool Hand beating the teenager in Exeter a week ago.
The world champion was guilty of some uncharacteristic misses on the outer ring in Devon, but he went off as a strong favourite for that match, and would do so again if the pair meet in the final in Brighton.
Any of the other six participants are capable of preventing a rematch from week four, but they would need to either deliver a flawless display, or hope for mistakes.
Gerwyn Price v Michael van Gerwen – Price to win
Gerwyn Price’s trip to the West Country brought two defeats and no wins. I’m not worried about those efforts, though, particularly the 10-9 loss to promising Connor Scutt, who averaged just shy of 100 and had impeccable timing.
However, I’m concerned by Michael van Gerwen – especially his finishing. He was above 40% on his doubles for 2024, but so far this year, he is at 38.5%. Since the start of the Premier League, his numbers make for even more grim reading. His checkout rate is 35.26% over the last month.
The Dutchman’s outer ring woes cost him at the UK Open, as he missed 26 darts at double in a 10-8 defeat by Rob Owen.
This problem is still over a small sample size and could flip back in the Green Machine’s favour, but he seems to be battling at least one aspect of his game at the moment. Therefore, I don’t think he is fancied against a resurgent Price, who won a Players Championship event last month and the Premier League night in Dublin.
Stephen Bunting v Nathan Aspinall – Aspinall to win
It can be lonely at the bottom of the Premier League. Ask Peter Wright, who took until week seven to earn his first win last year, one week longer than he had to wait in the previous year.
For Glen Durrant in 2021 it was even worse. The defending champion exited the league phase after nine weeks having lost every match.
Stephen Bunting is playing better than both of those players were at the time, but being the only individual yet to win a match while everyone else has won at least two, is bound to affect him.
Even without the psychological factors around the Bullet, Aspinall appeals in this spot after an encouraging couple of weeks which saw him win three Premier League games and make the quarters at the UK Open.
His dartitis has visibly got better, and his scoring is slightly superior to the Bullet over the last month.
Darts Tips
Week Five Straight Forecast – Luke Littler 1st / Luke Humphries 2nd
7:15pm: Gerwyn Price v Michael van Gerwen – Gerwyn Price to win
8.45pm: Stephen Bunting v Nathan Aspinall – Nathan Aspinall to win
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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