Luke Littler to Win v Stephen Bunting
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.
Nathan Aspinall to Win v Chris Dobey
Nathan Aspinall and Chris Dobey face off in a crucial fixture in terms of the battle for the top four on Thursday night. Stockport star Aspinall is currently housed in 4th place, while 7th-placed Dobey would boost his play-off hopes with a win here.
A case could be made for either player to come out on top in this crunch clash, however, the value could lie with Aspinall on Thursday night. ‘The Asp’ has proven to be the more consistent operator across the opening 12 weeks of the Premier League season, with only Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price picking up more points at this juncture.
‘Hollywood’, on the other hand, has lost 11 of his 18 Premier League assignments thus far, the most recent of which was a 6-2 defeat to Gerwyn Price last Thursday. While Dobey defeated Aspinall on his way to the weekly title in Rotterdam a fortnight ago, he has tended to struggle when toeing the oche against his close friend. In fact, Aspinall has had the Indian sign over Dobey in recent times, taking top honours from five of their last six duels, including three in the Premier League.
Over 9.5 Legs in Luke Humphries v Gerwyn Price
Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price’s showdown is arguably the standout fixture from Thursday night’s set of quarter-final ties. Not only is this a rematch of last week’s final in Liverpool, but it also pits the two players currently positioned 2nd and 3rd in the table respectively against each other.
Last week’s clash between the pair featured 10 legs of darts, and everything points towards the two players pushing each other to their limits again in Birmingham this Thursday. After making it to last week’s main event, both players will take to the oche in fine fettle, not to mention they will be fired up to claim a victory that could have a massive say as far as a passage to finals night at the O2 is concerned.
Moreover, the duo have now faced off four times in this season’s Premier League, with all bar one of those battles breaking the over 9.5 legs barrier. It’s also worth noting that Humphries and Price’s final meeting in last season’s Premier League also produced 10 legs.
