Night 2 Premier League Darts Preview – James Punt
Night 2 Premier League Darts
James Punt landed a lovely winner in Week 1 with James Wade at 3.30. Can he find any more winners this week? Check out his Night 2 Premier League Darts preview and tips below.
Peter Wright vs. Michael van Gerwen
It is a sign of the times that Peter Wright is the 1.67 favourite to beat his one-time nemesis, Michal van Gerwen. It is now Peter Wright who is closing in on the world number one slot. Wright, who has won two of the last three world Championships, won the first night of the PL and who picked up his first title of 2022 last weekend.
Snakebite has won fifteen of his last sixteen matches and his 2022 win rate stands at 90%. He once lost 16 matches in a row against MVG, but since he beat Van Gerwen in the 2020 World Championship final, he has won six of their last eleven matches, including the last three.
Van Gerwen Has Lost Winning Habit
Van Gerwen has not won a title since a players championship event last November and his only televised title last year was at the 2021 World Series finals last September. He has lost four of his last eight matches, including a loss to Gary Anderson last Thursday.
His scoring remains very good most of the time, but he is not converting that into many match wins. He is doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Missing the important doubles, failing to take advantage of opponent’s mistakes and that killer instinct has gone AWOL.
Their H2H record shows a 64-23 lead for MVG but the tide has turned, albeit not totally convincingly, in Snakebite’s favour. In terms of PL matches, MVG leads 10-3 with two draws.
Wright Will Be Confident
Wright is the confident one going into their matches. MVG knows he is now the underdog and that is a situation he is still not used to. From being the best player by a large margin for years, he is now just another good player, very good at times, but titles are becoming very rare.
There is always the chance that Wright beats himself by turning up with some silly darts, but on recent form he very much deserves to be the favourite. Their last two matches have both been in big, televised events, the 2021 World Matchplay semi-final, and the 2021 Players Championship finals quarter final. Wright won them 17-10 and 10-6 respectively.
I’ll take Wright to continue his excellent recent form against the struggling Van Gerwen. Wright is also a much more prolific 180 hitter. Last week he hit 8 across his 27 legs (0.30 per leg) and followed that up in the players championship events where he hit 41 at 0.336 per leg. That is all very much in line with his 12 month rate of 0.32. MVG on the other hand has a 12 month rate of 0.225 per leg and at the weekend his 180 strike rate was 0.27.
Night 2 Premier League Darts Tips: 1 point Wright to win -1.5 legs @ 2.25 with Ladbrokes
Night 2 Premier League Darts Tips: 1 points Wright to have the most 180’s and win @2.60 with Betfair
Jonny Clayton vs. Michael Smith
The Ferret has hit a bit of a loss of form recently. He has lost four of his last ten matches, including a 0-6 thrashing by Peter Wright in the opening night final of the PL. He lost 1-6 again to Wright in the quarter final of PC 1 at the weekend, before missing four match darts to beat Madars Razma in round 1 of PC2 on Sunday. It was only his two defeats to Wright which saw Clayton play poorly so it is a relative loss of form.
Michael Smith has played ten matches in 2022 and he has lost five of them, including a 3-6 loss to Peter Wright in last week’s PL. He only won two matches in last weekend’s players championship events. There were four ton plus averages in those last ten, so like Clayton, the loss in form is not massive, but both players have question marks over their form coming into this match.
Smith Ahead On H2H
Traditionally, Smith has beaten Clayton and has an 8-3 H2H record against the Welshman, including winning the ‘Match of the Year’ in the World Championship fourth round match. The two of them played their A+ game that night and it was Smith who edged it 4-3 in an extra time decider.
A more representative H2H record is 2-1 to Clayton, since he won the 2020 World Cup, the event that changed Clayton from a decent player, to one of the best in the world ever since. Clayton has only beaten Smith once in a stage match.
This is a hard call. Both players have had a bit of a wobble in the last week. Smith’s performance last week saw him fail to hit a single 180, was 100% on the doubles and averaged just 88.5. It was a very out of character performance and he was a bit hit and miss at the weekend. His last two matches saw him miss a load of doubles and both matches vs. Ritchie Edhouse and Keane Barry.
Pressure On Bully Boy
It is only week two of 16 league nights, but Clayton has three points on the board, Smith zero and he might feel a bit more pressure to get some points in the bank. Clayton is the 1.67 favourite with Smith 2.30 and that looks about right, despite their H2H record.
Jonny Clayton had home advantage last week but this week it is Smiths turn to be the ‘home’ player as he is a native of nearby St. Helens. Home advantage does not always work, however. Gerwyn Price playing so poorly in Cardiff last week being a case in point. Smith has played three PL matches in Liverpool and lost all three, so maybe we can forget about home advantage here.
Night 2 Premier League Darts Tips: 1 point Jonny Clayton to win @ 1.67 generally available
James Wade vs. Joe Cullen
Wade’s form is a bit of a head scratcher, so nothing new there. He beat Gerwyn Price last week in a poor match but lost the semi-final to Jonny Clayton. He averaged 90 across those two matches, so to get any points was fortuitous.
His best performance in the last week was in his last two players championship matches at the weekend, averaging 97.7 and 99.5, but losing both 3-6 to Krzysztof Ratajski and Darius Labanauskas respectively. He has lost five of his last ten matches.
Cullen Back To Earth
Joe Cullen came back down to earth with a bump last week, losing 2-6 to Jonny Clayton in the opening match. He put that behind him at players championship 1 on Saturday, hitting four ton plus averages and reaching the quarter final but losing 5-6 to eventual winner, Luke Humphries. He has won seven of his last ten matches and remains in good form.
It is very possible that last week came a bit too soon after his big win the previous Sunday. Suddenly he in was in the PL and spending Wednesday doing a media day before going straight in at the deep end on Thursday.
Cullen Edges Recent H2H
Their H2H record is 7-4 to James Wade but Joe has won four of their last five matches, though it must be said that that those five matches cover a period of nearly six years.
Cullen is the 1.73 favourite and Wade 2.10. If Cullen is a little more settled this week, he is more likely to show the sort of form he showed at the weekend and that should be too good for Wade matches, who isn’t in great form. In their last three best of eleven matches, Cullen has won them all 6-4.
Night 2 Premier League Darts Tips: 1 point Joe Cullen to win @ 1.73 generally available
Night 2 Premier League Darts Tips: 0.5 point Cullen to win 6-4 @ 6.50 with Boylesports, Fitzdares, Betfair
Gerwyn Price vs. Gary Anderson
Their H2H record could not be closer at 9-9 but since ‘that’ Grand Slam Final in 2018, it is 7-3 to Price. In the PL it is 2-1 to Price and in 2021 it was 2-1 to Price.
Price was poor last week, averaging just 89 when losing 3-6 to James Wade. Home disadvantage? Whatever it was he was right off his game. He turned things around at the weekend’s players championships events, winning eight of his ten matches and having five ton plus averages.
The Iceman may well be back to his best or at least closer to it. He lost the final of PC2 to Peter Wright, so it wasn’t a complete success, but he will have been encouraged by his play after a couple of disappointing months.
Scotsman Back On Form
Gary Anderson also showed some decent form at the weekend, winning five of his seven matches, hit three ton plus averages and nothing lower than 95. He is looking in better nick than for quite some time. If he can avoid having matches where he drops into the sub 90 averages he can have another good PL run.
That said, there are no easy matches, and this is a tough one for him. He doesn’t care for Price very much but at least he will have the crowd behind him, while Price will face the usual boo boys.
Price A Worthy Fav
On purely darts form, Price deserves to be favourite. He has got a bit of a hold on Anderson these days, but he will likely be facing a much better Anderson than he has for a while.
These two usually find themselves playing in big, longer format matches these days, but in the eight best of 11 matches they have played, Anderson is 5-3 ahead. Of those eight matches only one went longer than nine legs, so few close matches.
This is a hard call. Both players showed much improved form at the weekend and it is easy to make a case for both. Their H2H form suggests a win for Price is the likely outcome and he is the 1.50 favourite, with Anderson at 2.75. However, Anderson in good form is a different proposition and he just looks like he has got a taste for the game at the moment. The travel hasn’t got to him yet and he would love to get one over Price.
