2025 Night 10 Premier League Darts Preview

This Thursday the Premier League roadshow rolls into Manchester in England, home territory for The Nuke. Will the crowd lift him home? Check out James Punt’s 2025 Night 10 Premier League Darts preview below.

Night 9 Reflections

Night Nine in Berlin was a) a total wipeout betting wise, and b) a strange night of darts. First of all, it started early and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in missing the first match. That Bunting beat Aspinall was the second surprise.

Michael van Gerwen didn’t turn up after suffering an injury in the afternoon before the play started. He hurt himself trying on a shirt. That meant Gerwyn Price got a bye into the semi-final and MVG had a 0-6 loss put into his account.

Bunting made it to the final, beating Luke Humphries in the semi-final, and he got the full house by beating Price in the final. It was the worst night of darts in this year’s PL so far with a nightly average of 95.63. There was just one ton plus average across the six matches.

Hostile Germans

Luke Littler blamed a hostile German crowd for his poor performance. ‘The Germans don’t like us English’. It is worth remembering that little nugget. Maybe he just isn’t used to not being the crowd favourite. MVG was the same when he didn’t have a crowd behind him. These big stars can get a bit up themselves at times.

The players were complaining of a draught on stage, but it was the same for everyone.

We lost three points and that leaves the PL account at +0.13, and that pint is a long way off now. For Night 10 we go to Manchester and ‘home’ ground for both Littler and Aspinall. Last year the Manchester night was won by Littler, who beat Aspinall in the semi-final.

Luke Littler may be debuting some new darts this week. He has been practicing with them and they are to be unveiled soon. Littler lost to Dylan Slevin in the first round of PC11 on Tuesday but made the fourth round yesterday.

Jaded Players

Another reason for last week’s poor darts is that players are just getting jaded. Tired from travelling and playing PL matches, Euro Tour matches and Players Championship matches. Luke Humphries says it is not good for his mental health and that he is just playing too much.

He can’t opt out of the PL nights, but he is free to miss Players Championships and Euro Tour events. He did miss last week’s Players Championships, but did play the Euro Tour. MVG has picked up a neck injury trying on clothes (these finely tuned athletes, eh?) and perhaps the fact that Bunting has played the fewest matches, means that he is just a bit fresher.

More Darts

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we had more darts, with Players Championship’s 11 and 12. I expected the PL players to give them a miss and have a couple of days off, but no, only Cross and Aspinall were missing. On Tuesday, Price, Littler and MVG all lost in the first round and only Dobey won more than one match.

It was much better yesterday, with Gerwyn Price winning PC12, Littler reached the fourth round, Dobey and MVG lost in the first round, while Humphries took the day off.

Rob Cross withdrew from last weekend’s International Darts Open at the last minute, due to illness. He didn’t play in the midweek events.

Chris Dobey vs. Michael van Gerwen

After his tragic dressing injury, it is hard to know if MVG will have recovered from the trauma. Maybe he will have to play topless to avoid a repeat?

MVG sits in fourth place, just one point ahead of Rob Cross, with both with a leg difference of -7. Putting on that shirt could end up costing MVG many thousands of pounds. Van Gerwen managed to get dressed without incident at both Players Championship events midweek, but that was pretty much as good as it got.

He lost both his first round matches. On Wednesday it was a 3-6 loss to Rhys Griffin, on Tuesday a 5-6 loss to Maik Kuivenhoven. That means he has lost his last four matches and may not be feeling fully fit.

Outside Playoff Chance For Dobey

Chris Dobey in now just two points ahead of Bunting at the bottom of the league, but still only six points off the play off places. He might look at Bunting’s run last week and realise that there is still a chance.

Dobey played OK on Tuesday, winning three matches before bowing out to a surprisingly competitive Peter Wright (who went on to reach the final). He lost in the first round yesterday. That means he has lost five of his last ten matches and on stage he has lost eight of his last ten. On the positive side, he did beat Luke Littler in Berlin last week. It was a strange night.

Their H2H record is very one sided. Van Gerwen is 21-6 up and he has won their last four matches, three of them 6-1. One of those was a sets format at the World Championship, and that was a proper thrashing. Dobey has beaten MVG in the PL twice. The first was a 6-5 win and the second a 6-0 win, both during his 2023 PL campaign.

Close In Market

Normally this would have been a correct score bet on MVG to win 6-1 again, but, if MVG is still not recovered from his neck injury, does this give Dobey a chance for another PL win over his nemesis? Maybe, but the market has built that into the odds. Dobey is just 2.10 to win, MVG 1.80.

If MVG didn’t have this injury doubt, he would be a cracking bet to win. But there have to be doubts. MVG is under pressure, he has still not won a PL night in 2025.

Eight of their last ten best of eleven leg matches has been under 9.5 legs. Another one sided match, in either direction, wouldn’t be a complete surprise.

2025 Night 10 Premier League Darts Tip: 1 point under 9.5 legs @ 1.90 with SpreadEx

Nathan Aspinall vs. Rob Cross

The Asp decided to skip the midweek events as he attempts to turn his recent good Euro Tour form into PL points and a move towards to playoffs. Aspinall won the European Darts Trophy three weeks ago and was runner up in Riesa last weekend. He has lost three of his last four PL matches and is playing with little consistency, despite his Euro Tour success.

Rob Cross has been out with Illness since losing 3-6 to Luke Humphries last week. I had gone for an over 9.5 leg match, but the Curse of Cross struck…again.

Cross is the 1.82 favourite, despite him not playing last weekend or this week due to illness. It is a big match for both and we are on Aspinall to make the playoffs. Hopefully he can do a job on Cross. He has won their last seven matches, all of them in the PL.

That makes the 2.10 about an Aspinall win look very tempting, but tempting enough to break the Curse of Cross? No.

2025 Night 10 Premier League Darts Tip: No Bet

Luke Littler vs. Gerwyn Price

Seconds out, round twelve. Forget the Littler – Humphries rivalry, the Price – Littler one is much better. Of the first eleven, Price has won seven and has won their last six in a row. He is 2-0 in this year’s PL and comes here on the back of winning PC12 yesterday, his second Players Championship title in a week. He was unlucky to lose to Aspinall in Riesa at the weekend, going down 5-6 despite a 105 average.

Littler did opt to play at the two Players Championships this week, losing 3-6 to Dylan Slevin in round 1 of PC11, but he did reach the fourth round yesterday, losing 5-6 to Ritchie Edhouse. Littler lost his quarter final against Chris Dobey last week, going down 2-6 and playing poorly. He blamed the German crowd for not being nice to him, and that ‘the Germans don’t like us English’. Not true, they just didn’t like him!

He was trying to be cocky and the crowd got under his skin. It all went Pete Tong. Littler skipped the Euro Tour event at the weekend (it was in Germany) and then was not at his best in the Players Championships.

Dismissive

Littler doesn’t rate Players Championships. It is almost like they are beneath him. Most players say they are some of the hardest events to win, but Littler is very dismissive of them.

Littler has been talking about some new darts that he has been testing out. He has been using them in practice and while we don’t know when he is going to bring them out in public, it might not be ideal to be practicing with two different sets of darts.

It is always a risk for a player to move to a new set of darts. A bit like a golfer who wins the Open and then switches to a new set of clubs. Why change when it is going so well? Apart from the obvious financial reasons.

Home Support

Unless the venue has been infiltrated by a large group of Germans, Littler will have plenty of support and the crowd will be very much against Price. But Price has been there hundreds of times. He will be motivated to remind people that darts is not just about the two Lukes.

Price is not yet at 100%, but winning two titles in a week will not have done his confidence any harm at all. He has found his mojo again, wants to play in everything and why not? When you are playing well and winning titles, why stop?

Price will not always beat Littler, maybe Littler is due a win over Price, and he did beat Price here in last year’s final, but I am happy to have a rare two pointer in the PL.

2025 Night 10 Premier League Darts Tip: 2 points Gerwyn Price to win @ 3.00 with Betfred, BET365, Betfair

Stephen Bunting vs. Luke Humphries

Bunting won not just his first PL match of the year last week, but the won the night. He then backed that up by heading down to Riesa and winning International Darts Open. He has now won twelve of his last thirteen matches and hit nine ton plus averages along the way.

Luke Humphries is in a bit of a mood. He confessed to being tired, and need in a break while playing on the Euro Tour last weekend. Since then, he has taken a lot of criticism for expressing his opinion, or as he put it, being truthful about how he feels. ‘I will keep my mouth shut from now on’ or words to that effect.

His critics do have a point as he didn’t have to play in Riesa last weekend, nor in Leicester for this week’s Players Championships. Humphries has been pretty good at managing his schedule over the years, but his problem now might be that he isn’t winning titles.

Frustration

If he had won one of the first two Euro Tour events, he could have taken the rest of the season off. He is the world number 1 and my guess is that he is getting frustrated that he hasn’t picked up a ranking title since last season’s Players Championship finals. He is not playing badly. Last weekend he reached semi-final of the International Darts Open and averaged 102.75 across his four matches.

Humphries was poor when losing to Bunting in last week’s semi-final, averaging just 87.83. That is his D game. He wasn’t great wen losing to Littler in the final of Night 8. He has lost three of his last seven matches in the PL, and while he still looks very comfortable for the playoffs, he will be frustrated.

These two have met twice in the last week and Bunting won both. In 2025 it is 3-1 to Bunting and it is in danger of becoming a thing if Bunting wins this one. Mentally, Bunting comes into this on top of the world, as smug as a smug thing, while Humphries is all a bit negative, despite smashing in big averages.

I am a bit surprised to see Bunting at 2.40 and he is the bet.

2025 Night 10 Premier League Darts Tip: 1 point Stephen Bunting to win @ 2.40 with Betfred

-JamesPunt