The Premier League of Darts returned with a bang on night 10. We landed a couple of nice winners with De Sousa -3.5 @ 3.30 and Aspinall to win @ 2.60. James Punt is hoping to do even better on Thursday night. Check out his Night 11 Premier League tips and preview below…

Night 11 Premier League: Nathan Aspinall vs. Dimitri van den Bergh

Two players with one foot in the play offs and both playing well. Dimitri lost 3-8 to MVG last night but a 106.7 average and 60% on the doubles is hardly a poor showing. Aspinall beat Peter Wright 8-5 and didn’t have to play well to do so, averaging 93.8 but still had six legs with 15 darts or less.

Aspinall stays top of the league on 15 points and looks to be heading for his second play off in his first two Premier leagues. He has won four of their eight previous meetings but lost the last four in a row, including a 7-5 loss in the first phase.

Van den Bergh was unlucky to come up against an unplayable MVG last night. He went 0-6 down before he hit back with legs of 13,12 and 14 darts but Van Gerwen hit back with legs of 11 and 13 to wrap it up. To be honest, Van den Bergh did well to win a leg, never mind there.

Dimitri is playing very well right now, he had a great Super Series in Germany and he is winning a lot of games and scoring heavily.

This looks like a match in which both players will be hard to beat, and it could go to a deciding leg. A draw must be considered but I’ll take Van den Bergh to edge it.

Night 11 Premier League Tip: 1 point over 13.5 legs @ 2.25 with Betfair

Night 11 Premier League: 0.5 point Van den Bergh to win 8-6 @ 6.50 with Hills, Betfred

James Wade vs. Jose de Sousa

Wade finally hit a flat spot last night, losing 5-8 to Jonny Clayton. It really should have been a bigger margin of victory for Clayton who was outscoring Wade by a big margin but missing his doubles in the open stage of the match. That let Wade pick up legs he should have lost but once Clayton got his doubling boots on, he was able to win the match. Wade didn’t play badly. He averaged 92.7 which sounds poor, but he remains a dangerous player even when not scoring that well.

Jose de Sousa was able to cruise past a struggling Gary Anderson and it was a straightforward 8-3 win. Jose was very happy with his performance, a 99 average and 50% on the doubles. It wasn’t peak Jose, but it was more than enough.

Their H2H record is 2-0 with De Sousa winning their first phase match 7-5. It was a great match with De Sousa averaging 101 and Wade 104 so Jose beat a peak performance by Wade.

Wade Hard To Read

James Wade is not an easy player to call. He wins matches when not at his best and his performances can be inconsistent. In the first round of five matches, he was quite poor but in the next four he was excellent. Last night he was back to being fairly poor again. As ever when we are looking at James Wade matches, which one is going to turn up tonight?

It may not matter. De Sousa is at a level now where his B game beats most players, and his A game destroys most people. Wade will remain hard to beat and he will win legs, but De Sousa means business. He has not been able to travel home for a while, is residing in England with Demon Heta and Dimitri van den Bergh and he is all about darts right now.

De Sousa is the 2.05 favourite, Wade 3.20 and the draw 4.75.

Night 11 Premier League Tip: 1 point De Sousa to win @ 2.05 with SpreadEx

Night 11 Premier League Tip: 0.5 point De Sousa to win 8-5 @ 10.00 with William Hill

Gary Anderson vs. Peter Wright

The two ‘old school’ veterans are propping up the table and they have just six matches to turn things round if they are to have any chance of making the play offs.

Gary Anderson is really struggling with his doubles and getting very frustrated. He is not enjoying his darts; he isn’t practicing, and things are not going to get better without putting the work in. You can rely on natural talent for so long, but when you are playing the best players in the world, any weakness will get found out quickly. Anderson has looked a frustrated figure for much of the tournament, he has got one point from his last four matches and he has lost the last three in a row with a combined average of 91.

Peter Wright has played better than Gary Anderson so far. He has played well most of the time but has come up against players hitting peak performances. That said, he was poor last night, averaging 88.5 in a 5-8 loss to an under-par Nathan Aspinall.

When they met in the first phase it was a 7-4 win for Snakebite in a good quality match. Since then, Anderson’s form has dropped quite markedly. The big question is about Wright’s form. Was last night just one of those nights, or has he drifted out of form? He, and Anderson, did not travel to Germany for the Super Series, so Wright may just have been rusty. The last time Wright averaged 88 in a PL match, he bounced back the next night with a ton average and beat….Gary Anderson.

Their H2H record is 26-19 to Anderson with three PL draws. In the last two years it is 6-1-1 in favour of Peter Wright.

Anderson is in deeper poo than Wright form wise and Snake bite can keep himself in with a shout with a win here. Peter Wright is the 2.00 favourite, Anderson 3.20 and the draw at 4.75.

Night 11 Premier League Tip: 2 points Peter Wright to win @ 2.00 with Boylesports

Night 11 Premier League Tip: 0.5 point Wright to win 8-4 @ 7.50 with Unibet

Michael van Gerwen vs. Jonny Clayton

There is a touch of Déjà vu about this match. Michael van Gerwen put in a vintage display when beating Dimitri van den Bergh 8-3 last night. MVG averaged 110, was 80% on the doubles and even hit four maximums. The last time he put in a performance like that was when he beat Jose de Sousa 7-4 in the first phase. He averaged 104.7 that night and looked like he was back in form. However, the next night he played Jonny Clayton and lost 3-7, averaging 91.

This is the thing about MVG over the last few months. He has become more inconsistent. He can still hit the high notes, very high notes, but he is just as likely to have a poor performance. There are fewer of these strong performances than there used to be, and other players are able to operate at his level, even his A game level. In his 39 matches played in 2021 his ton average is 33%, which is good but not as good as Jonny Clayton’s 51% from his 57 matches.

Ferret Still Flying

The Ferret has remained at a very high level of performance for some time now. Winning the World Cup kick started this surge in form and winning the Masters has kicked him on to another level. He believes that he can win tournaments and beat anyone. He is very confident and has the ability to not let a defeat get to him.

Clayton had a good win over James Wade last night. Wade wasn’t at his best, but it was another ton plus average for Clayton, his sixth in ten PL matches and he remains the highest scoring player in the league.  His weakness is in on the outer ring and when he is struggling with the doubles he loses. He started poorly on the doubles last night and was letting Wade into a match where he was been outscored by a big margin. However, he finally got going and once the doubles where flowing, there was only one winner.

Clayton Nothing To Fear vs MVG

Their H2H record is 11-7 to MVG but in 2021 it is 3-0 to Jonny Clayton and in their last ten matches it is 5-5. Clearly Clayton is not overawed by MVG.

Michael van Gerwen is the 2.00 favourite, Clayton 3.25 and the draw 5.00.

Last nights performance by MVG made him unplayable. He won the first six legs with just 78 darts, or 13 per leg on average. The question is, can he reproduce that tonight? If he does, he wins but he cannot afford to throw in one of his sub 94 averages, which he has done four times from ten matches so far. Clayton is too consistent to let MVG get away with that.

Given their H2H form and Clayton’s form, The Ferret looks the value. There is a chance that he gets minced just as Van den Bergh was last night, but there is also a chance that MVG’s confidence proves to be brittle once more.

Night 11 Premier League Tip: 1 point Jonny Clayton to win @ 3.25 with Ladbrokes

-JamesPunt