"Michael van Gerwen will be looking to tighten his grip on a play-off spot after his absence last week and he should make up for lost time by getting the better of Chris Dobey. While there will be doubts around van Gerwen’s fitness this week, going up against Dobey could represent an ideal opportunity to get back up and running.

‘The Green Machine’ has triumphed in each of his two meetings with ‘Hollywood’ in this season’s Premier League, the most recent of which was a 6-1 thrashing. On top of that, van Gerwen boasts an impressive record in his opening match of the night in this year’s Premier League, posting six wins from eight to date. 

While Dobey caused a huge upset last Thursday by defeating Luke Littler, that was just ‘Hollywood’s’ 4th Premier League win of the season, having fallen to defeat on nine occasions. Consequently, Dobey is now looking nervously over his shoulder after Stephen Bunting’s exploits in Berlin. It’s also worth noting that Dobey has lost each of his last four meetings with van Gerwen, further suggesting that he will suffer the same fate in Manchester."

"While Luke Littler’s record against Gerwyn Price makes him difficult to trust, the alternative solution is to support the teenage sensation to rack up the most 180s in this match. Even in defeat to Chris Dobey last Thursday, Littler still managed to win the 180 battle 4-2. That means ‘The Nuke’ has now hit an astonishing 106 maximums across the opening nine weeks of the Premier League season. To put that into context, Luke Humphries is second on the 180 leaderboard with 52 - less than half the amount that Littler has tallied to date. 

The Warrington wonderkid has hit more 180s than his opponent in 12 of his previous 13 Premier League assignments. Moreover, Littler hit 7 180s to Price’s 2 the last time the pair crossed paths on a Premier League stage. While ‘The Iceman’ is also more than capable of contributing to the 180 count in this contest, he has not been a consistent maximum hitter throughout the current Premier League campaign, evidenced by his overall return of 40 thus far. What’s more, the Welshman produced just two 180s when losing to Stephen Bunting in last week’s final in Berlin."