"Luke Littler can get his Premier League campaign back up and running by getting the better of Stephen Bunting on Thursday night. While the Warrington wonderkid fell at the first hurdle last week, he is still occupying top spot in the table thanks to an impressive return of 18 wins from his 26 matches thus far. Two of those victories have come against bottom-of-the-table Bunting, and Littler should overpower the scouse star for a third time this season.

‘The Bullet’s homecoming in Liverpool last Thursday turned out to be something of a damp squib after he found himself on the wrong end of a 6-1 reverse at the hands of Rob Cross. That latest setback means that Bunting has now come away empty-handed from 11 of his 16 matches in this season’s Premier League, which doesn’t augur well ahead of his battle with league leader Littler in Birmingham.

It’s also worth noting that Bunting suffered an early exit at the Austrian Darts Open when losing to Matt Campbell at the weekend, further suggesting that he will come up short against Littler in the latest round of Premier League action."

"Michael van Gerwen merits support to hit the most 180s during his clash with Rob Cross on Thursday night. ‘The Green Machine’ has been more solid than spectacular on the 180 front in this season’s Premier League, averaging a more than respectable 2.80 maximums per game thus far.

That being said, that average would almost certainly have been slightly higher had van Gerwen not been forced to withdraw from Night 9 in Berlin with a shoulder injury. Moreover, MVG has come out on top on the 180 count in four of his last six Premier League matches, including last week’s semi-final defeat to Luke Humphries.

In contrast, Rob Cross has hit the fewest 180s of the eight-man field in this season’s Premier League to date, landing a combined total of 45 maximums thus far. What’s more, Cross failed to register a 180 across each of his two outings in Liverpool last week, further highlighting his tendency to struggle when it comes to filling up the 180 bed."