Night 4 Premier League Darts Preview

Night 3 saw James Punt land another couple of nice winning bets at 2.40 and 4.00. He is back to try and cause the bookies more heartache on Thursday night. Check out his Night 4 Premier League Darts preview and betting tips below…

Dimitri van den Bergh vs. Peter Wright

From being one of the favourites to miss the cut, Dimitri van den Bergh sits on top of the league after the first three rounds. He continues to score very well and while his checkout rate (35%) is the second lowest, much of that is down to missing seven in the first leg of his 7-0 win over Glen Durrant last night. He did well to keep his head down and just get on with it, rather than being completely put off by Duzza’s struggles.

Peter Wright returned to normal last night hitting a ton average and beating Gary Anderson 7-4. He changed his darts again, using his world championship winning darts. If he sticks with them, he could be a contender again, but he won’t. Wright has a handy 8-2 H2H record over Van den Bergh and the Belgian hasn’t beaten Wright since June 2019.

Back To Full Health

Wright was said to be not feeling well when he was thrashed 7-2 by MVG in night two. We must assume that he is now restored to full health in which case he will average around the ton mark with 50% on his doubles. Van den Bergh is perfectly capable of living with Wright scoring wise, but he may need to improve his doubling if he is to win.

So far Peter Wright, ante post favourite to hit the most 180’s in the league, has hit just four. Only Glen Durrant has hit fewer (2) while Dimitri has hit 11 and done it play one leg less than Wright. Van den Bergh is scoring 180’s much in line with is seasonal norm while Wright is significantly lower. Either Wright is due a glut of maximum’s or he will continue to be off the pace. At the odds, I go with Dimitri to hit the most tonight.

Night 4 Premier League Tip: 1 point Dimitri van den Bergh to hit the most 180’s at 2.15 with SportingIndex, Ladbrokes

Night 4 Premier League: Jonny Clayton vs. Rob Cross

Jonny Clayton’s dazzling run of good form was underlined by him hitting a nine darter last night. What was even better was that he followed that up with an 11 dart leg and a 12 dart leg to win the match. It is normal for a player to lose concentration after a nine darter, or even just missing one, and to follow one up with more excellence, underlines Clayton’s confidence. He beat Jose De Sousa 7-3 despite De Sousa averaging 108. Clayton had started the match slowly and was being comprehensively out scored by Jose, but still went 4-2 up, De Sousa hit an 11 dart leg before Clayton lit the after burners to win three in a row.

Clayton has a job of work to do here, against a player who he has not beaten since the 2017 Players Championship finals. He did beat Cross in a ‘Home Tour’ match during the first lockdown, but in the ‘real world’ Cross has won their last four meetings albeit with the last being back in March 2019.

Solid Performance

Rob Cross was comfortably beaten 3-7 by MVG last night. Cross played well, averaged 97.8, 50% checkout rate and three 180’s, but was blown away by a rampant Van Gerwen. At least Cross won three legs, his best against MVG in a PL league stage match.

Clayton is the 1.67 favourite here, Cross is 4.33 and the draw at 5.00. I would say that there is no value in Clayton’s odds in this match. Cross is playing with more purpose and confidence and will be tough to beat. That said Clayton is the best player in the world on recent form and nobody is looking forward to facing him. He will not win every match and he could be pushed hard tonight.

Night 4 Premier League Tip: 1 point Rob Cross to win +2.50 legs @ 1.91 with Hills, Boylesports, Sporting Index, Ladbrokes

Jose de Sousa vs. Nathan Aspinall

Jose de Sousa has scored just the one point so far and he got that in his worst match, a 91 average against Rob Cross on the opening night. He improved vs. Gary Anderson on night two and should have got a draw but missed four darts to do so. Last night he scored very well vs. Clayton and was looking in control, but he threw a leg away by miscounting and then Clayton just went berserk.

Aspinall is a much more confident player than he was coming into this event and that is reflected in his results, winning two from three so far. He isn’t the best player in the league but looks very likely to make phase two and have a shot at the play offs. He is not in peak form, but he says he is getting there (no doubt he will meet Gary Anderson on route).

They have met just once in real world darts with Aspinall winning 6-2 in a floor event in June 2019.

Aspinall Back On Song

We have Aspinall returning to form and in a positive frame of mind, against a frustrated De Sousa who is scoring better than Aspinall, but not getting the results. There were four head shakers last night, Duzza, Anderson, Wade and De Sousa. They all lost. If Aspinall can get De Sousa frustrated and shaking his head, he wins. For De Sousa to win, he needs to keep up the power scoring and pay attention to the score.

Jose De Sousa is the 2.38 favourite with Aspinall at 2.62 and the draw 4.50. The pressure is on De Sousa. He needs a win, or he is in trouble.

We have backed De Sousa to have the most 180’s in this years PL and so far he has hit 9, five shy of the leader, Gary Anderson on 14. One reason is that he is going for treble 19 much of the time, with considerable success.

This is a tricky one to call. I fancy Aspinall to get the win, he is the more confident player, and he has hit more 180’s and had ton plus checkouts every night so far. De Sousa is the man under pressure, he is lacking a bit of confidence on the treble 20 and is yet to have a ton plus checkout. I will take a high-risk punt on Aspinall landing the match treble.

Night 4 Premier League Tip: 1 point Aspinall to win, have the most 180’s and highest checkout @ 8.50 with Ladbrokes

Night 4 Premier League: James Wade vs. Michael van Gerwen

James Wade started brightly when getting a draw vs. Gary Anderson on night 1, but he flopped badly when losing 3-7 to Rob Cross and he was never really in the match when losing 4-7 to Nathan Aspinall last night. The Asp was 5-1 up but let Wade back into the match before closing it out. Wade ended up averaging 92.5, but he was just 31% on the doubles. He looked fed up, which is not encouraging.

Mighty Mike was back in full effect last night. He averaged 107.5 when defeating Rob Cross 7-3. Every leg he won he did in 15 darts or less and that is hard to beat. Cross did well to win three legs.

Their H2H record is 40-16 to MVG with one draw. The draw was in the 2019 PL and since that, MVG has beaten Wade six times in a row. Their PL H2H record is 8-2 to MVG with one draw. In league stage PL matches MVG lead 63-36 in legs won.

With Wade looking glum and MVG rampant once again, you have to fancy a comfortable win for Van Gerwen. He is the 1.53 favourite to do so but I think he can cover a -2.5 leg handicap.

Night 4 Premier League Tip: 1 point MVG to win -2.5 legs @ 2.05 with Ladbrokes

Gary Anderson vs. Glen Durrant

It is painful to watch Glen Durrant right now. He has zero confidence in his game, and he would rather be anywhere else than playing in the PL. The fact that he is the defending champion but playing the worst darts of his career is humiliating.

In his opening leg against Nathan Aspinall last night, Duzza missed 12 darts at a double before Aspinall finally put him out of his misery with a 23 dart leg. The fact that Aspinall missed seven doubles himself just made it worse for Durrant who was dying a slow death with every dart missed. Aspinall unwittingly prolonged the agony and a 0-7 loss for Duzza was inevitable after that. Aspinall wasn’t even playing that well and Durrants opponents almost look guilty for inflicting more misery on him.

Angry Anderson

How generous Gary Anderson will feel is open to question. He was furious when losing last year’s PL semi-final 9-10 to Durrant. It was a terrible match with both players averaging in the 80’s. Anderson lost one of the league stage matches 4-7 vs. Duzza and drew the other. Those three matches are the only time these two have played each other so Anderson will want to make his mark and more importantly get two points in the bank.

Durrant is now on a run of six consecutive losses and five consecutive sub 89 averages. Like last nights match, there is only one winner here and it is not a matter of who, but by what margin. 0-7 score lines are surprisingly rare in the PL. In the last five years, the first phase matches have seen one 0-7 result in 2020, 2019 and 2018. There was technically one in 2017 when Wright was given a 7-0 result after Kin Huybrechts dropped out of one nights play. There were two 0-7 results in 2016, both for Robert Thornton.

Another 0-7 loss for Duzza has to be considered. Gary is last on tonight and it will be past his bedtime, so he will be keen to get it over with and hit the hay.

Night 4 Premier League Tip: 2 points to win -3.5 legs @ 2.00 with Ladbrokes, BET365

Night 4 Premier League Tip: 0.5 point Anderson to win 7-0 @ 15.00 with Betvictor, BET365

-JamesPunt