AFTER another winner last week, our Darts man Michael Day (@daisy8ball) takes a look at Week 5 of the Premier League.
Peter Wright v Michael Van Gerwen | Thursday 21:20 | Sky Sport 1
No love lost in this clash on Thursday evening! Off the back of a hostile ending to his match against Adrian Lewis last week, Van Gerwen will duel against another familiar foe.
The duo had a famous exchanging of words during and after a heated match in last seasons PL, an undertone which follows the pair about every time they meet. In many ways though this sits better with the Dutchman who seems to up his game when angry.
Wright picked up a surprise point last week with a draw against a wasteful Phil Taylor, but still remains winless in four attempts – a run I expect to continue in Exeter.
MVG sits pretty on top of the league and already looks a shoe in to dominate throughout the remaining fixtures. He salvaged a 6-6 draw in Belfast after being 5-2 adrift, to preserve his unbeaten start.
His record when playing the Scot is also formidable. He has triumphed in 22 of their 29 career meetings and possesses a 100 percent record on TV. Although last seasons league meetings were close with both ending 7-5, there is a real gulf on current form.
The ‘Green Machine’ is very skinny to win the match (4/11 with BetVictor) and to get more 180’s (8/15 Spreadex), so I’ve gone with the unique ‘King of the Oche’ bet being offered by Coral.
Basically it’s a treble of the match winner, most 180’s and highest checkout. Considering what I have said before and the stats in his favour (Van Gerwen has hit 16 180’s to Wrights eight in the competition so far), I think we’re getting 6/4 on him hitting the highest finish.
Whilst Wright is capable of a big out, I don’t think he’ll have too many legs the chance to do that in, as I envisage a comfortable night for the current world number one.
Dave Chisnall v Gary Anderson | Thursday 22:00 | Sky Sports 1
Dave Chisnall has been the real surprise package so far in this years event. Few would of expected the St. Helens man to be sitting in second with seven points and with no defeats to his name.
He’s had wins against Peter Wright, Raymond Van Barneveld and last week put in a significant performance when beating Kim Huybrechts. During that game he averaged over 107, fired in six maximums and had a very impressive 57% checkout rate.
World champion Anderson is positioned third in the standings with six points, and enjoyed a solid victory over the tough James Wade in his last outing. However after a hectic few months, the ‘Flying Scotsman’ admitted last week he was ‘running on empty’.
It’s quite remarkable that these two players have only ever played six times, an astonishing figure considering the amount of darts that get played. Ando leads that record 5-1, but both players are of a different pedigree now to back then.
Studying a little closer, all of those outcomes were very close. Last year's matches in this event were 7-5 and 7-4, and in other tournaments there has never been more than three legs between them come the end.
Anderson is quite rightly favourite (5/6 William Hill) but I suspect some people may have a sniff on Chisnall at a very reasonable 11/4 with Skybet in a relatively short format.
For me though, it’s too close to call a match result, but I can take comfort in the 5/4 quote from Sportingbet that there will be over 11.5 legs in the match. That basically means it can be 7-5 either way; or the score draw of 6-6.
Best Bets
Michael Van Gerwen v Peter Wright – Michael Van Gerwin to be ‘King of the oche’ (6/4 with Coral)
Dave Chisnall v Gary Anderson – Over 11.5 Total Legs (5/4 with Sportingbet)
Free Bet If Final Checkout Over 100
If the final checkout on any Premier League match is over 100, Betfair will refund losing stakes on that match as a free bet.
